Freak Storm Reportedly Drowned Dozens of People Off Pelham Shores in 1922

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
Order a Copy of "The Haunted History of Pelham, New York"
Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

On a beautiful, lazy late afternoon in the spring of 1922, nearly twenty thousand people descended on City Island to swim and fish in Long Island Sound.  It was June 11, 1922.  Hundreds and hundreds of canoes, skiffs, rowboats, sailboats, and other watercraft plied the waters around City Island from Execution Light to Hunter's Island and beyond.

Bathers crowded local beaches on City Island, on Hunter's Island, and on the mainland.  Indeed, hundreds of bathers crowded onto the property of the City Island Bathing House to enjoy a lovely Sunday afternoon.

Shortly before 5:45 p.m. that day, the proprietors of the City Island Bathing House noticed something strange on the horizon.  It looked like a monumental, dark-colored wall approaching.  Though it took a little time, it became clear that a massive storm was approaching quickly.  The proprietors began shooing bathers out of the water as the storm quickly overtook the region.

All hell broke loose.  One eyewitness described the storm as a "Kansas twister."  Winds were clocked as high as 88 miles per hour.  The skies unleashed a "white blanket" of hail.  Within moments, hundreds of pleasure craft in Long Island Sound were capsized.  Many drowned immediately.  Others fought for their lives and clung to capsized craft in the heavy waves and high winds.  Volunteers at life saving stations on City Island and Hunter's Island launched small craft and began dragging exhausted excursionists out of the heavy waters.  One rescuer tried to save a drowning man, but was dragged under by the man.  Both drowned.

Everywhere there were heartrending scenes.  In one rowboat, eight people including a young mother and her infant daughter were tossed into the waters.  One of the passengers tried to save the baby.  She sank beneath the waves, as did the infant.  The distraught mother clung to the side of the rowboat as others tried to keep her from going under the heavy waters.  A tree fell into a chimney at a hotel on Boston Post Road.  The tree and chimney collapsed the roof and crushed a couple to death inside.  Lightning killed two people.  Others were electrocuted by downed power lines.  A new Ferris wheel in an amusement park on nearby Clason's Point was blown over into the waters of long Island Sound, killing seven and injuring 35.  

Fifteen minutes later, the storm passed.  Pandemonium began.  Bodies were floating in Long Island Sound.  Rescuers crowded onto launches and began plying the waters of the Sound searching for survivors.  Husbands, wives, sons, and daughters crowded City Island beaches searching for any sign of missing loved ones.  Indeed, according to one account:

"Following the tragedy, City island became a scene of pandemonium.  Many of the men who had gone out to fish had left their wives and children there to picnic.  As soon as knowledge of the drowning became general and heads of the families, sons, and in some instances daughters, failed to return the survivors became hysterical."

All communication with the outside world was cut off.  The storm had severed not only electrical lines, but also phone lines.  Indeed, it was three hours before word of the catastrophe reached the rest of the region including New York City authorities.

Soon bodies began washing ashore from Larchmont to City Island.  The casualty list began to grow.  Confusion reigned.  Newspapers the following day reported up to 75 deaths in the freak storm.  The newspapers published the identities of the confirmed dead, but quoted police as saying it would be days before all the missing persons reports could be resolved and a true tally of the dead would be known. 

One boat rental facility reported that 46 of its rowboats were missing after the storm.  All were in use at the time the storm hit.  People began lining up outside a City Island police station seeking any information they could obtain about their loved ones.  There were so many people waiting for news of missing loved ones that the very long line became a human conveyor belt.  As the person at the head of the line asked police about missing loved ones, if nothing was known, that person would return to the end of the line and wait in line again until reaching the front and asking again.

A local bathing house was used as a makeshift morgue.  There the scenes were heart-breaking.  According to one account:

"There were many heartrending scenes as friends and relatives of the drowned identified them.  So many men, women and children became hysterical that it was necessary for the police to remove them to other parts of the island and keep them under observation.  Relatives of the missing were equally affected."

The freak storm did millions of dollars of damage in the region.  It only took fifteen minutes, but those fifteen minutes unleashed death, devastation, and pandemonium on Pelham and the surrounding region on that late spring day nearly one hundred years ago.

Wreck of Clason Point Ferris Wheel After June 11, 1922 Storm.
Source:  POLICE PUT STORM DEATH LIST AT 75, The Evening
World [NY, NY], Jun. 12, 1922, Vol. LXII, No. 22,073, p. 1, cols. 1-8
& p. 2, cols. 1-3.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

*          *          *          *          *

There were hundreds and hundreds of newspaper articles written about the freak storm on June 11, 1922.  Below is the text of two such articles.  Each is followed by a citation and link to its source.

"POLICE PUT STORM DEATH LIST AT 75
-----
POLICE PLACE DEATH LIST IN STORM AT 75, WITH BODIES OF 47 RECOVERED
-----
Biggest Mortality Was at City Island, Where 16 Drowned and 46 Rowboats Are Unaccounted For.
-----
Seven Killed When Ferris Wheel at Clason Point Collapses -- Property Damage Incalculable.
-----

The official police estimate of the number of victims of the storm that swept this city and vicinity yesterday evening is seventy-five.  It is known that forty-seven were drowned or otherwise killed.  The estimate of seventy-five is based upon the number of inquiries that have been made about missing persons at Bronx and Westchester Police Stations.

Thousands visited the Fordham Morgue to-day and looked at the bodies there.  It would appear that most of the visitors were looking for missing relatives.  From the number of rowboats, canoes and motor boats that have been washed ashore along the Sound beaches between the Harlem River and Greenwich, Conn., the estimate of seventy-five victims in this vicinity seems to be low.

The greatest loss of life by drowning was at City Island, where the storm came with terrific fury and hundreds were caught far from shore in canoes and rowboats.  One boathouse at City Island reported to-day that forty-six rowboats rented yesterday before the storm are missing.

At New Rochelle James Stroker lost his life while trying to rescue five Italians from a capsized rowboat.  Stroker and Charles McGrath of Larchmont were on shore and saw the rowboat capsize.  They went out in a launch and saved three of the five men.  Two of the Italians were drowned and one of them dragged Stroker down with him.

The body of a young man wearing a blue sweater, white trousers and white shoes came ashore at Larchmont Yacht Club shortly before noon.  There were no identifying marks on the clothing.

Harry Klein of No. 1619 Washington Avenue, the Bronx, reported to the City Island police to-day that Sadie Dexler, 19 years old, a stenographer, of No. 496 East 174th Street, was drowned in the storm.  According to Klein, he and Miss Dexler were in canoes a short distance off shore when the storm broke.  The canoes were capsized.  He made an effort to save the young woman, but she was swept from his reach.

Among those reported missing were Miss Rita Anderson of No. 103 Centre Street, City Island, an eighteen-year-old stenographer, and B. A. McLaughlin, a young man who had taken her out for a row on the Sound from Lane's Beach.  They returned home late last night, explaining that their boat had been swamped by the waves kicked up by the storm.  When they righted it, the oars were gone.  It took them three hours, paddling with their hands to reach Nevin's Dock on the Bronx shore.

Moe Buskin, twenty-three, No. 230 Miller Avenue, Brooklyn, a salesman, is believed to have drowned.  His friend, Don Selvin, No. 1220 42d Street, Brooklyn, reported to the police of the City Island Station this morning.

'There were four of us in a canoe,' he said, 'and the storm came upon us between Hart's Island and Half Moon Beach.  Three of us, including Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Moss, managed to cling to the upset canoe and were rescued by a lighter.  But Buskin drifted out with the tide.'

The 50-foot sloop yacht Viking capsized in Larchmont Harbor.  Three women were caught in the cabin of the yacht.  To rescue them it was necessary for the crew to swim to shore, get axes and steam out to the yacht in a launch and cut a hole in the hull.  The women were uninjured.

The Sound shore of Westchester was in darkness last night.  Officials of electric light companies say it will take a week to repair the damage done in a few minutes.

Carl Vollmer, twenty-two, of Pennyfield Road, Bronx, was reported missing to the police by his mother, Bella, to-day.  He went canoeing off City island yesterday and has not returned.  It is believed he was drowned.

Death came not only by drowning.  Some were killed by falling trees; others were struck by lightning and others were electrocuted by fallen high power feed wires.  The catastrophe was made worse by the cutting off of communication when telephone wires were broken.  Most of those who were killed and injured were far from their homes.

RAILROADS WASHED OUT AND TRAINS STALLED.

Up-State there are reports of railroads washed out; highways blocked by fallen trees and gutted by torrents.  The City of Oneida was five feet under water for an hour.  Syracuse reports a loss of $1,000,000.  

Scores of the 3,000 trees recently planted in Central Park were uprooted.  

Seven persons were killed and thirty-five injured when a Ferris wheel at Clason Point Park in the Bronx was torn apart and blown into Long Island Sound.  A man was killed by a live wire in Newark.  A tree was blown on the brick chimney of Red Lion Inn on the Boston Post Road, killing a mother and daughter at a table.

Motor cars were abandoned in many parts of the metropolitan district by their owners in seeking safety.  One woman left her car near Hackensack only to be killed by a falling tree, and a similar fate overtook a man near Piping Rock. L. I.  A condemned tree in Mount Vernon fell on a woman and child, killing both.  These are but a few of the accidents, hundreds of them of a minor nature.

The storm swept up from Pennsylvania, through New Jersey and New York, the wind at times having a velocity of 88 miles an hour.  Before passing out to sea it split into three distinct but short disturbances.  It was the second storm of the day which did the most damage, the first being mild.

Many who saw the approach of the afternoon storm, which lasted only about fifteen minutes, said it resembled a Kansas 'twister.'

Valentine Fendrich, chief of the Fire Alarm Telegraph Bureau, sent out every man in his department to repair storm damage.  Fifteen lines were broken in Brooklyn, ten in the Bronx and five in Queens.  Comparatively little damage was done in Manhattan, where the wires are all underground.

Mr. Fendrich said that the overhead wire system in other boroughs were at the mercy of a storm such as that of yesterday and he meant to use the experience to emphasize his recommendation that the wires in Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Richmond be put under ground as rapidly as possible.

Credit for reducing the total of casualties was given by the police to-day to the management of the City Island Bathing House.  Attaches seeing the black clouds approaching called in the hundreds of bathers from the water and when the first fierce gust of wind broke all the pleasure seekers were safely under shelter.

Among the 20,000 holiday makers about the island were the regular summer colony, week-end campers and many visitors.  The storm descended suddenly at 5.45.  Bathers and others on the beach escaped easily, but few of the boats could reach shore.  Just how many persons were picked up from the water by life-savers and members of nearby boat clubs never will be known.

MOST OF THE VICTIMS IN SKIFFS AND CANOES.

The known casualties were mostly off Execution Light, six miles east of City Island; Rat Island, three miles east, and an island a mile north, in waters known as fishing grounds.  Most of the overturned boats were skiffs and canoes, many containing women and children.  Those who aided in keeping down fatalities after the first blast were crews of the two stations of the United States Volunteer Life Saving Corps on City Island and Hunter's Island, and the members of the City Island, Metropolitan, Stuyvesant, Morrisania and Oak Point yacht and boat clubs.  In many cases girls and young men were dragged from the water by the experienced water men just as they were about to succumb.

The police boat John F. Hylan and other boats of the Marine Division played powerful searchlights on the water all night, but early to-day no further bodies had been recovered.  The police were waiting for the tide to turn when it was expected other bodies would be washed ashore, but they continued grappling.  

City Island at 4 A. M. was still in darkness and the telephone wires were still down, not even the Fire Department there having a connection.

THE DEAD.

PETGOLD, MARY, fifty-two, No. 3416 Levere Street.
KAPLAN, BEATRICE, thirteen, No. 346 Pacific Street, Brooklyn.
KOHLER, AGNES, three, No. 236 West 11th Street.
RIGOFF, MARION, No. 1472 Seabury Place, the Bronx.
[Illegible], JULIA, twenty-six, a stenographer, No. 848 Whitlock Avenue.
FARLEY, PATRICK, thirty-eight, No. 41 Commerce Street.
BUSKIN, MOE, twenty-three, No. 200 Miller Avenue, Brooklyn.
LONDON, MORRIS, twenty-one, No. 734 East 165th Street, the Bronx.
REITTER, ISIDOR, nineteen, No. 21 Charles Street.
KEINING, JOHN, thirty, No. 2416 Levere Street, Bronx.
KEINING, GEORGE, two and a half years.
PFOFFENDORF, ALFRED, six months.
DEXLER, SADIE, nineteen, No. 496 East 174th st., Bronx.
STROKER, JAMES, No. 32 Union Avenue, New Rochelle.
GRATTINO, JOHN, No. 234 East 105th Street.
GUIDE, SALVATOR, No. 1957 First Avenue.
Unidentified man in yachting apparel washed ashore at Larchmont Yacht Club.

There were many heartrending scenes as friends and relatives of the drowned identified them.  So many men, women and children became hysterical that it was necessary for the police to remove them to other parts of the island and keep them under observation.  Relatives of the missing were equally affected.

The wind, which struck Pelham Bay at 5.45 and blew until 6 o'clock with the fury of a hurricane, left in its wake a scene of desolation.  Trees were uprooted, buildings were unroofed, windows were shattered and telephone and electric light wires were blown down.

This resulted in the severing of all communication with the island.  As a consequence, news of the tragedy did not become generally known outside until three hours after its occurrence.  The island police were handicapped, as they could not summon ambulances or aid except by crossing the bridge leading to the mainland by motor.


Lieut. Reilly went over about 9 o'clock and flashed word to Police Headquarters.  In the meantime yacht clubs in the vicinity and crews of two life saving stations started the work of rescue in motor boats.  They were joined when darkness fell by the police boat John F. Hylan, which cruised about, throwing its searchlights over the waters.

Scores of amateur fishermen, men, women and children, were rescued, clinging to the keels of their overturned boats.  Others had been carried close enough in to wade ashore.  Many of the boats were without occupants.  

'There is no way of knowing just how many were drowned until several days have elapsed,' said Lieut. Reilly.  'Many of the people who come here on Sundays to swim or sail are from Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey towns.  We shall have to wait until we check up with families who report missing persons who left home with the intention of coming here to spend the day.'

ALL NIGHT HUNT FOR BODIES OF VICTIMS.

One of a party on a yacht owned by Tom Conrad, a song writer, told last night of the rescue of three men from a swamped motor boat on the Sound.  The hail was to thick it formed a blinding white blanket, he said, and the yacht passed the boat before the men were seen.  They went back and pulled them out of the water.

The waters of the Sound were dotted with overturned boats, hats and articles of clothing, he said, for a distance of several miles.  At the Stuyvesant Yacht Club on City Island members saw that a catastrophe had happened.  They jumped into boats and joined the rescue work.

All night hundreds of persons knowing that members of their families had gone to City Island for the day, went there by automobile or in any other way possible.  They lined the street in front of the police station asking for information of relatives and friends, and when there was no information passed down to the foot of the line to ask again later.

The search by the police caused additional excitement among the crowds.  Patrolmen laden with hats, pocketbooks, parts of women's and men's clothing, shoes and stockings came to the police station.  The pile grew larger every minute and the work of tabulating the articles was handicapped by the fact that the desk Lieutenants and Sergeants pressed into service had to work by the light of candles, oil lamps and lanterns.

Mrs. Petgold and Agnes Kohler, three years old, two of the identified dead, were in the rowboat with six other persons who were rescued.  The storm caught this party in Pelham Bay.  The boat overturned almost immediately and all were thrown into the water.

Mrs. Petgold, who tried to save the child, sank at once, and the others of the party, including Mrs. Katherine Kohler, the child's mother, managed to keep afloat.  Mrs. Kohler was saved by members of the Stuyvesant Yacht Club.  Albert and Edward Ottes and F. E. Acker of the Hunter's Island life-saving station rescued Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Thessendorf of No. 333 East 118th Street, Miss Anna Bursall and another person whose name was not obtained.

FOUR MEN MISSING FROM LAUNCH IN THE SOUND.

A 33-foot glass cabined launch drifted into the float of the Clason Point Yacht Club, Clason Point, the Bronx.  Its Custom license is 171.  A man who reported the finding of the launch said he had seen the boat earlier in the day with four men on it, but no trace of the men was found when the launch drifted in.

the police of Greenwich, Conn., early to-day notified Detective Sergt. Wiessmer, of the Missing Bureau at Police Headquarters, that Gladys Redinger, twenty-four years old, of No. 803 East 116th Street, had been taken to a hospital in Greenwich last night after being rescued from Long Island Sound.  John Anderson, of No. 4138 Disney Avenue, the Bronx, who, the police say, was the rescued girl's fiance, was drowned.

William Taylor, nineteen years old, of No. 2063 Crotona Avenue, the Bronx, who aided in rescuing ten or fifteen persons thrown into the Sound from rowboats off City Island, was taken from his home early this morning to Fordham Hospital suffering from submersion.  Taylor assisted in the work of rescue until he became exhausted and had to be rescued himself.  After being attended he was taken to his home in an automobile, and after telling his family of the horrors he had witnessed and saying nothing of the heroic part he himself had played in the rescue work, the young man collapsed.  

According to reports received at Police Headquarters Anderson and the young woman were canoeing on the Sound and were caught in the storm.  The canoe was overturned and its occupants thrown into the water, Anderson swam with the girl to the canoe and helped her cling to it.

The yacht 'Countess,' owned by J. B. Dunbough, of No. 177 Summit Avenue, Mount Vernon, passed nearby and went to the rescue.  Miss Redinger was reached in time and lifted into the yacht.  Anderson, his strength exhausted in holding his fiancee against the side of the canoe, lost his hold on the boat and sank beneath the water before rescuers could reach him."

Source:  POLICE PUT STORM DEATH LIST AT 75, The Evening World [NY, NY], Jun. 12, 1922, Vol. LXII, No. 22,073, p. 1, cols. 1-8 & p. 2, cols. 1-3.  

"50 DIE IN STORM IN GREATER N.Y.
UPSTATE PROPERTY LOSS TO RUN INTO MILLIONS
-----
SCORES OF PLEASURE BOATS OVERTURNED AS WILD GALE SWEEPS LONG ISLAND SOUND
-----
Eight Bodies Recovered -- Police Believe 30 More Missing -- Pandemonium Reigns at Sunday Resort as Hysterical Women Fail to Find Husbands and Sons -- Six Perish as Ferris Wheel Is Wrecked.
-----
TWO KILLED WHEN TREE CRASHES THROUGH ROOF ON DINNER PARTY
-----

NEW YORK, June 11 -- Fifty persons are reported to have been drowned off City Island in Long Island Sound when the mad storm that hit the city late today capsized scores of small pleasure craft.  Eight bodies have been recovered and thirty more persons are reported missing.

Twenty thousand holiday-makers went to City Island today and half went out on the waters of Pelham Bay.  It was jammed with boats of every description when the storm hit it.  Few had opportunity to get ashore.  The known casualties occurred off Execution Light, which is about six miles east of City Island; Rat Island, about three miles east, and another island nearby.

Ten Thousand Were Fishing.

It is estimated by Lieut. Joseph Reilly of the City Island detectives that no fewer than 10,000 persons were fishing off those places when the storm broke.  After it had passed and the sky cleared, the waters of Pelham bay and Long Island sound were dotted with overturned rowboats, launches, canoes and yachts.

The police immediately started the work of rescue.  At 9 o'clock tonight eight bodies had been recovered, and Lieut. Reilly said he was making a conservative estimate when he put the bodies to be recovered at thirty.

Scene of Pandemonium.

Following the tragedy, City island became a scene of pandemonium.  Many of the men who had gone out to fish had left their wives and children there to picnic.  As soon as knowledge of the drowning became general and heads of the families, sons, and in some instances daughters, failed to return the survivors became hysterical.

All communication by telephone with the island was cut off by the razing of wires and telephone poles, and this hampered the police.  They improvised a morgue in one of the bathing pavilions and as rapidly as the bodies were recovered they were taken there for identification.

Six Killed on Ferris Wheel.

Six persons were killed and more than forty hurt when the wind caught a huge Ferris wheel at a Clason Point amusement park and crushed it to the ground.

A women and her seven-year-old daughter were crushed to death and several other persons injured when an oak tree blown by the wind crashed through the roof to the crowded dining room of the Red Lion inn in Boston Post road, carrying with it an old-fashioned stone chimney.

The dead were taken from the cars that were thrown into the sound.  The wheel, 100 feet in diameter, was constructed only recently, park officials said, and was considered one of the best in the country.

The dead:

Louis Dorotio, 524 Edith street, Old Forge.
Emily Lawyer, New York.
Mrs. Pasquale Kreda, New York.
Idella Vanderpool.
Pellegrino Fasuk.
Unidentified boy.

Among the seriously injured were:  Pasquale Kreda, Kenneth Lawyer, Anita Schalk and Anna Fleet.

Paul Simon, owner and operator of the wheel, was arrested on order of Assistant District Attorney Quigley on a charge of homicide.

The bodies of seven canoeists caught in Long Island sound off City island at the height of the storm were washed ashore after nightfall.

Girl Blown Overboard, Drowned.

Miss Edda Smith, seventeen, walking with a companion along the Reservoir road at Ossining, was blown into the water and drowned.  

Charles Emerson, New Rochelle clothing manufacturer, was rowing in Echo bay with his wife and three children when the storm broke.  He managed to row to shore, then died from a heart attack.

A tree fell across a party of motorists seeking shelter on the Brookville road near Locust Valley, Long Island, killing Harry Halleran of Oyster Bay, and seriously injuring his three men companions.

Unable to reach shore in the stiff wind, Jack Lowenthal, twenty, was drowned while swimming in East river.

Two Killed by Lightning.

Concetti Basiataso and his ten-year-old son Anthony of Mount Vernon were killed when a tree, under which they had found shelter in the Bronx, was struck by lightning.

Two men were killed in Newark, N. J., when they came in contact with electric wires torn down by the wind.

A massive decayed tree on the New York - Westchester county line at Mount Vernon fell, crushing to death Mrs. Cassie Cacavalle and her infant son.

Moe Ruskin, one of a party of canoeists in Echo bay, was drowned.  Three other members of the party swam to shore after the canoe capsized.

Ten excursionists on the ferryboat Hildegrad, returning from Interstate park, N.J. to West 158th street, were injured when the wind tore a lifeboat from its davits.  In falling the boat struck the railing of the lower deck at a spot where about a dozen passengers had gathered for shelter, then it slid into the river and disappeared.  Sidney Jacob, fourteen, was badly hurt and was taken to a hospital.  Others injured were able to go to their homes."

Source:  50 DIE IN STORM IN GREATER N.Y. -- UPSTATE PROPERTY LOSS TO RUN INTO MILLIONS, Buffalo Courier [Buffalo, NY], Jun. 12, 1922, Vol. LXXXVII, No. 163, p. 1, cols. 1-8.  

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
Order a Copy of "The Haunted History of Pelham, New York"
Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

Early February, 1886, When the Waters Off Pelham Froze Over and Trapped Ships

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
Order a Copy of "The Haunted History of Pelham, New York"
Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

The cold that winter more than 130 years ago was so brutal that extreme efforts had to be taken to prevent prisoners held on Hart Island in the Town of Pelham from simply walking away from the prison across the ice of Long Island Sound.  Every day during that brutal cold spell in early February, 1886 the powerful steamboat Fidelity chugged along dutifully and plowed away the thick ice around the entire circumference of the island so Hart Island prisoners could not escape.  Winter was pounding poor Pelham once again.

Pelham, it seems, had grown accustomed to the terrible cold of a merciless winter.  Only four years before during another ferocious winter, the Long Island Sound around City Island and Hart Island off the shores of Pelham froze over and trapped hundreds of craft including schooners and myriad sailing vessels.  Indeed, so many ships were trapped in the ice on that occasion that, according to one account, at night the area "looked like a big town" due to the many lights that could be seen within the many trapped vessels waiting for the ice to thaw and break up.  

Three years before that, in 1879 during another brutal cold spell, much of the Sound and even rivers including portions of the Hudson froze over in a similar fashion.  Steamers were used to break up the ice to try to keep maritime navigation flowing.  Though shipping continued sporadically in the New York City region, the ice-choked waters slowed traffic tremendously for many, many days.

Early February, 1886 was no different.  On February 9, 1886, the New York Herald reported that around City Island and Hart Island "the ice was a complete field."  Pelham Bay "was an unbroken sheet of ice."  Ice on the rivers surrounding New York City was between four and six inches thick.  Schooners, tows, and tugs were stuck in the ice around the islands.  Indeed, on February 8, 1886 there were seven schooners and twenty one canal boats stuck in the ice near City Island and Hart Island.  Additionally, thirteen coal barges that were bound for Bridgeport were stuck in the area.  The New York Herald reported that the ice was solid from the waters around City Island all the way up to Saybrook, Connecticut.

In an effort to keep maritime commerce flowing to and from City Island, a steamship tug was used to cut a channel through the ice leading to the City Island dock one morning.  By the afternoon, however, the tiny little channel was virtually impassable.  It was "choked with broken cakes of ice."  

Sailors on board the trapped vessels made the most of their situation.  For example, Captain Flannery of the M. Vandercook (the vessel towing the thirteen ice-bound coal barges) was accompanied by his wife.  On the evening of Saturday, February 6, Captain Flannery's "buxom, hospitable" wife hosted a grand party for sailors including Captain Fillman, Captain John Walker "Peter" Carlin, and Captain Michael Daly.  Each captain was accompanied by his wife.  One of the crew members provided music with a concertina.  The ladies and gentlemen, according to the New York Herald, enjoyed "an elegant time . . . that evening on the frozen Sound."

It was days before the ice "rotted" from warm weather and ships could travel safely again.  For a time, however, the crews of many ships were ice-bound in a little place called Pelham, New York. . . .   

The Jeannette, Shown Ice-Bound in 1881.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

*          *          *          *          *

"FROZEN IN ON THE SOUND.

The severity of the weather last week was especially remarkable up the Sound.  Around City Island and Hart Island the ice was a complete field, and from four to six inches in the rivers.  Schooners, tows and tugs were caught in Hart Island Roads and were ice bound for days.  Yesterday morning there were fixed there seven schooners and twenty-one canal boats.  The schooner John Douglass, Captain Jordan, with a crew of five, with coal, bound for Boston, ran in there on Wednesday night, and next day was unable to break through the ice, so heavy had been the frost within a few hours.  The other schooners caught in the same trap were the Helen Thompson, the Speedwell, the Charles W. Simmons, the E. Flower, the Randolph (Captain Ward), for Providence, the Gray Parrot (British, Captain Mulbury), for St. John, N. B., and the James English (Captain Perkins), for Newport.

A HERALD reporter yesterday went up to City Island to ascertain the state of things.  Pelham Bay was an unbroken sheet of ice and the Hart Island Roads were nearly in the same condition.  The powerful steamer Fidelity had ploughed along the shore of Hart Island every day so as to break the ice and thus prevent a possible means of escape for the prisoners confined on the island.  The ice in the roads was already black and showing signs of rottenness.  A channel from the City Island dock to the vicinity of the schooners had been made by a tug in the morning, but in the afternoon a good part of this channel was choked with broken cakes of ice.  The HERALD reporter pulled through the open water, and then he and his man had to drag the boat over the unbroken portion of the ice to get to another lead to reach the schooners.  The operation was watched with languid interest by the crews, who leaned over the bulwarks calmly smoking.

LIFE ON THE ICE-BOUND CRAFT.

When the reporter got alongside the Douglass and began to ask questions without introducing himself, Captain Jordan said:  --  

'I suppose you are a reporter?'

'Just so,' was the answer.

'Be you from the HERALD?'

'Why, of course,' was the response.

The skipper thereupon told his visitor that he would be still more delighted if he (the visitor) had brought along a sou'west wind to break up the ice.  The Douglass had spoken the C. B. Sanford, which reported that the ice was solid all the way up to Saybrook.  The crews of the different schooners had not suffered for anything.  Up to Sunday afternoon they were able to walk over the ice to City Island to get all the drink and (if necessary) all the food they wanted.

On Sunday afternoon, however, an accident occurred to one of the men.  A sailor named Jack Deering was in rear of a party, trudging over the ice to the village, when he got on a tender spot and down he went.  He clung to the edge of the broken ice and shouted.  His chums ran back and one of them extended to him a boat hook, which he grasped, and by this means was dragged to a safer place.

The Captain John, the steamer plying between New Rochelle, City Island and New York, got into City Island before Wednesday.  She came down to New York early yesterday morning.  
The Massachusetts was seen to pass down the channel outside the roads seemingly badly listed to port.  Every one thought she had met with a serious accident.

FESTIVITIES UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

From Wednesday until yesterday morning thirteen coal barges bound for Bridgeport and New Haven lay in the channel at the entrance of Hart Island roads.  They had been towed thus far by the M. Vandercook, but could get no further because of the ice.  The leading boat was bossed by Captain Flannery, whose buxom, hospitable wife determined on Saturday night to give a party.  The skippers who crowded her cabins were Captains Fillman, John Walker 'Peter' Carlin and Michael Daly, and the good ladies their wives accompanied them.  There was no grand piano aboard, but one of the crew had genius and a concertina and furnished the music.  The orchestra was not imbedded [sic] in a bower of roses, as is usual on such occasions, but a hillock of coal hid it from sight, and the proprieties were so far observed.  It was an 'elegant' time those ladies and gentlemen had that evening on the frozen Sound.  Yesterday their palatial floating residences were towed into the roads.

Mr. Furman, a member of the Pelham Yacht Club, said this winter, so far, the ice had not been as great and as unbroken as on some previous winters.  Four years ago there were hundreds of craft frozen in, and at night the roads, from the myriads of lights, looked like a big town.

Just below City Island Dock is Dan Carroll's shipyard, where the yacht Lurline is being repaired.  The Lurline belongs to Mr. James Waterbury, the millionaire.  The yacht is being fitted with a new boiler and a flush deck.  Owing to the cold the work on her has been slow, but it is hoped she will be ready by the 10th of March to go South.

The schooners Minnehaha and Oak Wood, which were disabled in the great storm of three weeks ago, are being repaired at the City Island Dock.  Should the fine weather continue -- indeed, should this morning prove very mild -- the schooners and tow named above will be able to get out by to-morrow morning."

Source:  FROZEN IN ON THE SOUND, N.Y. Herald, Feb. 9, 1886, p. 8, col. 6.  

*          *          *          *           *

Pelham experienced a series of terrible winters during the 1850s, the 1870s, and the 1880s.  I have written before about some of these terrible winters and the major storms they produced. See, e.g.: 

Thu., Aug. 17, 2017:  More on Brutal Winters in Pelham During the 1850s.

Thu., Jul. 27, 2017:  Terrible Storm of 1856 Wrecks Dozens and Dozens of Ships Including Many on Pelham Shores. 

Fri., May 26, 2017:  The Significance of the Wreck of the Steamer Plymouth Rock in Pelham in 1855.

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
Order a Copy of "The Haunted History of Pelham, New York"
Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."

Destructive Blizzard Hammered Pelham 104 Years Ago Today

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."

With yet another Nor'easter bearing down on the little Town of Pelham and expected to howl over us beginning this evening, it seems appropriate to recall another Nor'easter that slammed Pelham and the New York City region one hundred and four years ago today and tomorrow (March 1-2, 1914).  The massive storm was, at that time, the largest and most destructive storm to crash into Pelham since the massive Blizzard of 1888 that hit on March 12-13, 1888.  To make matters worse, the storm followed on the heels of another blizzard that had blanketed the area with snow on February 14, 1914.  The snow from that Valentine's Day storm had not yet entirely melted.

At about 7:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 1, 1914, rain began splattering across the Pelham region.  Though the temperature was about 35 degrees all day long, by mid-morning the rain turned to a heavy snow that began to collect as slush on the streets, sidewalks, ground, and grass.  It clung tenaciously to trees throughout the region.

Around noon that day, the wind began to howl.  At times later in the day wind gusts reached 85 miles per hour -- well above hurricane-force winds.  As one might expect, trees and large tree branches throughout the region began toppling -- many onto electrical lines, trolley lines, telephone lines, and utility poles.  Others fell across roadways including a particularly large tree that fell across Boston Post Road at Fowler Avenue in Pelham Manor, taking down electrical lines with it.

Trolley lines ground to a halt.  The storm became so bad that trolley cars in the Village of North Pelham and in the Village of North Pelham became stranded on the tracks.  The problem often was not that the trolley cars were stuck in heavy snow but, instead, the tracks became so slippery with the slushy snow that trolley motormen inadvertently burned out the motors of the trolley cars trying to get the cars to move along the slippery tracks.  Trolley cars sat stranded in the midst of Pelham streets for much of the day and evening as the storm raged.

Only ten or twelve inches of snow fell in the Pelham region during the Nor'easter of March 1, 1914.  The howling wind of the gale, however, did tremendous damage.  The next day, United Press reported that at least eight people had died in the New York region during the storm.  The same report stated:

"With railroad tracks piled deep with snow, telegraph and telephone lines down, and traffic of every sort completely tied up, the entire east was today paralyzed in the grip of the worst storm in years.  A blinding snow driven before a high gale continued to swirl and drive through the storm section this afternoon.  Railroads canceled trains entirely.  No attempt was made to carry passengers and reports were lacking on trains from the west due in here yesterday.  Losses as the result of the storm will probably run into the millions.  Meagre reports received from the railroads indicates staggering damage has been done by the high winds and the heavy snow.  A foot of snow has fallen here up to noon today.  Weather bureau officials said the storm might abate this afternoon or tonight, but the tie-up is now so complete that it will require days for the cities and town of the east to dig themselves out."

The region, of course, dug out of the snow, cleaned up the damage and, where necessary, rebuilt.  The Nor'easter of 1914, it seems, was merely another reminder like the Great Blizzard of 1888 why we say that March comes "in like a lion."

*          *          *          *          *

"MOST DESTRUCTIVE BLIZZARD IN TWENTY YEARS SWEEPS SECTION
-----
Trolley Service Completely Out of Commission Up to an Early Hour this Afternoon -- Telegraph and Telephone Service Crippled for Time -- Lighting Company Kept Busy Repairing Breaks as Falling Trees Tear Down Wires -- 85 Mile Gale Brings Ruin in Its Path -- Money Loss is Going to be Heavy -- Streets Filled with Snow and Slush
-----

Spreading ruin in its path, a blizzard that was more destructive than that of any in the last 20 years swept over Mount Vernon yesterday and last night.  Today the following are grim reminders of the visitation:

Ten-inch sheet of snow, ice and slush over everything, making many crosswalks impassable and converting sidewalks and gutters into slushy lakes which look innocent enough but in which pedestrians sink ankle-deep in water.

Much property damage, consisting of broken windows, signs, doors, trees, telephone poles.

Crippled traffic on railroads and trolleys.  Trains behind tine, while for nearly 24 hours not a wheel has turned on the trolley lines except where men tried to operate snow plows and sweepers, but the snow is so heavy that they made little progress.

Lighting system threatened by falling trees and poles.  Southern section of city without light.

Hundreds of telephones out of commission caused by snapping wires.

Deliveries of foodstuffs delayed or entirely prevented.

More snow fell today, considerably hampering the work of digging Mount Vernon out.  To make matters worse, the temperature began to drop this afternoon.  A cold wave would convert the slushy snow into thick ice.

Public schools in Mount Vernon are shut down today, it being realized that to send children out of their homes in such weather would be jeopardizing their lives.  While the storm was at its height last night few persons ventured out on the streets and consequently many churches were dark.

A northwest gale that at times attained a velocity of 85 miles blew unceasingly last night, accompanied by a precipitation that alternately turned from snow to rain and some times mixtures of both.  All in all, it was one of the worst nights on record here.  While the storm did not result in nearly as much snow as the famous blizzard of 1888, nevertheless while it was far more destructive and fierce than anything within the memory of the present generation.

With snow covering the ground from the blizzard of February 14, which had succumbed somewhat to three days of thaw, rain began to fall yesterday morning about 7 o'clock.  Those seeing the rain welcomed it, thinking it would be the means of washing away what remained of the previous snowfall.  However, the rain soon turned to snow and soon the streets were full of slush.

People emerging from church at neon, found that they could not step anywhere without sinking over their rubbers into the watery slush.  The temperature was over 35 degrees all day.  In the early afternoon the wind arose, flinging rain and snow all about.  The snow fell fast, great big flakes that soon covered up the slush.  There were few flakes although the wind raged.  The snow, very damp and heavy, lay where it fell.

Those who had left their homes in the morning to go visiting found themselves in a bad fix on returning home.  Persons were thrown to the ground and became soaking wet.

Mayor Fiske was at his office yesterday afternoon and with Deputy Public Works Commissioner Benedetto did what they could to relieve the conditions that were fast growing worse.  A half hundred snow shovelers were sent out to clear the crosswalks, but at 7:30 p.m., buffeted about by wind and wet to the skin, they gave up their task.  City snowplows and gutter plows were sent out, but the snow was so heavy that little could be done yesterday.

Today sixty men were sent out to clear the crosswalks and drains.  No further steps will be taken to remove the snow, Mayor Fiske said, until it is seen what new developments take place.  It is impossible, he said, to haul the slush.  Consequently no carting of snow was carried on.  No garbage collections were made today.

Everybody clean off sidewalks, not only the walks, but their gutters, too, was an order issued by Mayor Fiske.  The mayor notified the police department to enforce strictly the city ordinance which provides that snow and ice must be removed in a certain time.  The ordinance in question will be 
-----
(Continued on Page Five.)

MOST DESTRUCTIVE BLIZZARD IN CITY
-----
(Continued From Page One).
-----

found in an advertisement on the first page of the Argus.  Prosecutions will follow neglect to obey the law, Mayor Fiske said.

A wagon manned by three city employes started out this morning to make the rounds of the city, picking up parts of broken trees.  Eight snow plows were also put to work.  Six gangs of seven shovelers each were sent to the various wards, one gang going to each ward except in the Fourth ward, where two gangs were detailed.

'There's no use trying to haul this stuff away,' said Public Works Commissioner Harlow.  'It is too heavy.  It is packing down well and the wagons and autos are not having so much difficulty as they did two weeks ago.'  The commissioner added that there has been one continual round of complaints from persons wanting crosswalks cleared.

Lieutenant Clark at police headquarters is suffering from writer's cramp today after the many reports of storm damage that occurred.  The flag pole on the city hall snapped under the pressure of the gale.  Three men were sent onto the roof today to pick up the remnants.  The following reports of damage were made at the police station.

Telephone wires down at Stevens avenue and West Lincoln avenue.  East Sidney avenue near the fire house.  Electric light wires down at Fifth avenue and First street, Sand street and Gramatan avenue.  Lights were reported to have burned the Fourth avenue and Fifth avenue bridges slightly before being put out.  An electric light wire burned a tree on Third avenue near Third street where the cable broke.

A large branch was reported to be hanging from a tree on Ninth avenue near Fourth street.  It was removed by the department of public works.  A Western Union cable snapped on South Railroad avenue.  Scores of large limbs were blown from trees, and in some instances whole trees went down.  Trees were damaged at Brookside avenue near Fourth street, Mount Vernon avenue and Short street, before 137 Summit avenue, Third avenue, and Fourth and Fifth streets, Fourth street between Third and Fourth avenues.

Windows were blown in at the Anderson Realty office, Third avenue and First street;  Marcus Bros., grocers, 495 West Lincoln avenue.

A broken trolley pole was found hanging from some wires at Mount Vernon avenue and West street.

A section of the large sign board on top of the building on the northeast corner of Fourth avenue and First street, facing East First street, was blown down.  The signboard was plastered with wet snow and this fact together with the wind caused the board to collapse and topple over.  The section facing Fourth avenue did not blow over.

For the first time in years the no school signal, '9-9-9' was sounded this morning at 8 o'clock at headquarters by order for the board of education.  It was a rather unusual coincidence that the no school signals in this city, New Rochelle and Tuckahoe were all sounded at the same time.

Fire Commissioner Howland, early yesterday afternoon instructed Fire Chief Nicholas Ehrbar to issue orders to all of the paid firemen to immediately go on duty at their respective fire houses and to sleep there.  They will remain there until countermanding orders are given.  Chief Ehrbar said that the arrangements at the several fire houses for drawing the pieces of apparatus in cases of fire are the same as those which went into effect on the day of the first blizzard.  There are chains and ropes on the wheels of the automobile apparatus.

In case the auto apparatus of Truck 1 cannot be used the light truck now at headquarters will respond.  It is hoped that residents of the city will continue to exercise diligence in regard to leaving waste paper in the cellar and at the foot of the stairs so as to avoid any possibility of fires breaking out by matches being thrown about.

Not in years has the trolley service in this city been so badly crippled.  Not a trolley car has been operated in this city since last night, up to press time this afternoon.  The trouble is due to the ice on the tracks which formed after the cold set in early last evening and froze the slush in the grooves, and also to the fact that the water in the tracks coming from the melting snow and the slush, got into the motors and caused them to burn out.  More cars were crippled by burned motors than in any other way.

Late in the afternoon the real trouble began and Supt. William B. Wheeler and his assistants were kept busy trying to operate at least a few cars.

First, one of the Chester Hill cars became stalled on East Lincoln avenue near Fletcher avenue about 5 o'clock.  Prior to that the cars had simply crawled along their lines.  Then another car became stalled on the same street and still another one was unable to be operated beyond North Columbus avenue.

It was 7 o'clock when trolley service on the line east of Fulton avenue and Third street went out of commission for about an hour.  This was due to the fact that one of the high tension wires of the Westchester Lighting Co., covered with a blanket of snow, was blown down by the gale and it fell across the trolley wires on Echo avenue, New Rochelle.  Not a car was operated until this wire was removed.  The Pelham manor trolley service was affected also.  Then a short time after that, another of the lighting company wires fell across the wires on the corner of Fowler avenue and Boston Post road in Pelham Manor, and Boston Post road in Pelham Manor, and once more the trolley service between New Rochelle and East Third street was put out of commission.  The trouble was overcome and the situation improved, but not to a great extent as from that time on only a few cars were run between New Rochelle and 177th street.

The Third avenue elevated cars and the Williamsbridge and Mount Vernon cars crawled along until 2 o'clock this morning when one of the big red cars operated by the Union Railway Co., on the Williamsbridge-Mount Vernon line became stalled at 233rd street and White Plains road and then came a blockade.  Not a car was operated on the main line into this city.  After that hour no more New Rochelle cars were operated to 177th street, the cars simply making the loop around First street from Fourth avenue to Fifth avenue and then back to New Rochelle.

The one Harlem station car became crippled when the motor burned out late last night at Scott's bridge.  Both of the North Pelham cars were stalled as were the Fifth avenue cars.  The Fifth avenue line was blocked by a car which could not be moved from Seventh street, near the switch.

The Sixth street and Fulton avenue car became stalled at 1 o'clock this morning at the foot of the hill on Union avenue and Sixth street, the motors burning out as a result of the water and slush on the tracks.

The blockade on the White Plains line began at 3:30 o'clock when one of the large double truck cars on its way to this city got as far as a point between Williams and Cedar streets on Gramatan avenue, when it could not be operated any farther in the snow and there it remained.  The passengers walked to this city in the storm and wind.

No cars were operated between Harlem station and Yonkers this morning and the West Mount Vernon cars could not be run in Webster avenue.

The Westchester Lighting company considers that its escape from any great amount of damage is quite remarkable in view of the fact that in New Jersey and vicinity thousands of poles were blown down.  No a pole owned by the Westchester Lighting company, was blown down in this city and vicinity according to information given out at the offices of the company.  All of the trouble with the lighting system was due to the fact that wires were torn down by falling trees.

While the gale was at its height a tree was blown down on Third avenue, between Second and Third streets.  It carried lighting company wires with it.  It was then about 6 o'clock and the system on Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth avenues south of Third street was out of commission all night.  Superintendent Green had a gang of men at work all night.

A tree was blown down on the corner of Brookside avenue and Fourth street, but the wire which was carried down, only provided current for the pumping station near there and for one or two houses.  Another tree was blown down on Gramatan and more wires of the lighting company were torn down, but again the company was fortunate in that only a few houses on Gramatan avenue were cut off from light.  A part of the lighting system of Bronxville was affected, but as a gang of men was rushed to the scene of the trouble, the wires were put back into place again by 8 o'clock.  A wire came down on First street and South Fifth avenue at a point near the New Haven cut.

The most serious trouble occurred on Fowler avenue and Boston Post road in Pelham Manor about 7 o'clock when a large tree covered with snow collapsed.  The emergency cut in was quickly made, otherwise Mount Vernon would have been in darkness.

The Corcoran Manor section was cut off from electric light in the evening when the when three trees were blown down on California road and wires were short circuited.

Superintendent Green had gangs of men at work all over the city and in neighboring towns untangling wires from trees.  The men were taken to the various places in conveyances and there was one accident.  A wagon was upset in a snow drift on White Plains road opposite Westchester Park.  The driver and his helper were thrown out but escaped injury, but the shafts of the wagon were smashed.  The men could not reach the place they were sent to, so they were ordered to find sleeping quarters for the rest of the night, it being then 1:30 o'clock.

Two hundred telephones in this city and about 600 in the county were put out of commission.  Owen G. MacKnight, traffic manager of the telephone company, said today that the company escaped serious damage.  There was, of course, intances where some wires in trees in parts of the city were carried down by falling branches and these had to be repaired.  The principal trouble occurred where the wires extending from the cable in the subways to the house of the subscriber became covered with ice.  This morning at 11 o'clock there were not more than 50 telephones in the city out of commission.  Mr. MacKnight said the trunk lines held well.  Business was unusually heavy and the entire force of telephone operators, with extra girls were at work at 7:30 o'clock."

Source:  MOST DESTRUCTIVE BLIZZARD IN TWENTY YEARS SWEEPS SECTION -- Trolley Service Completely Out of Commission Up to an Early Hour this Afternoon -- Telegraph and Telephone Service Crippled for Time -- Lighting Company Kept Busy Repairing Breaks as Falling Trees Tear Down Wires -- 85 Mile Gale Brings Ruin in Its Path -- Money Loss is Going to be Heavy -- Streets Filled with Snow and Slush, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Mar. 2, 1914, No. 7387, p. 1, cols. 1-7 & p. 5, cols. 1-4.

"Conditions Worse In New York -- Railroads Cancel Trains And Death List Is Reported Growing
-----
(By United Press)
-----

New York, March 2. -- With railroad tracks piled deep with snow, telegraph and telephone lines down, and traffic of every sort completely tied up, the entire east was today paralyzed in the grip of the worst storm in years.  A blinding snow driven before a high gale continued to swirl and drive through the storm section this afternoon.  Railroads canceled trains entirely.  No attempt was made to carry passengers and reports were lacking on trains from the west due in here yesterday.  Losses as the result of the storm will probably run into the millions.  Meagre reports received from the railroads indicates staggering damage has been done by the high winds and the heavy snow.  A foot of snow has fallen here up to noon today.  Weather bureau officials said the storm might abate this afternoon or tonight, but the tie-up is now so complete that it will require days for the cities and town of the east to dig themselves out.

Eight deaths have been reported so far in New York and vicinity.  Five have perished in New York.  One man was killed by a fallen live wire in Trenton.  Two cleaning railroad tracks were killed by a train on Long Island.  Reports from outlying districts are lacking.  The coal and milk situation is acute.  Not in years have coal dealers received such demands for fuel while being absolutely unable to fill orders.  No milk was received in the city today.  Most of New York went to business today on the subway.  Surface cars stood on their tracks, snowed in by great drifts, and Brooklyn was completely snowbound.  From all parts of the coast came reports of vessels in distress.  None left their piers today and incoming steamers were held up outside the harbor.  So great was the danger of disastrous fires in New York that 500 firemen were detailed to patrol the streets.  'Way Down East' village scenes were enacted in upper Broadway.  The wind during the night drove the sleet into keyholes and when the temperature dropped, locks were frozen solid."

Source:  Conditions Worse In New York -- Railroads Cancel Trains And Death List Is Reported Growing, The Daily Argus [Mount Vernon, NY], Mar. 2, 1914, No. 7387, p. 1, cols. 2-3. 

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."