Week of December 12

December 11, 1875 – 150 YEARS AGO

Rockland County Journal

AROUND HOME

  ☞ Joseph Smith, an umbrella tinker, was arrested by Hubbell on Wednesday evening for being drunk and disorderly. On Thursday morning Judge Stephens sent him up for ten days.

  ☞  Will the owner of the lot on DePew Avenue east of Mr. Elting’s make those ornamental flagstones thereon useful by laying them down so that the public shall not have to walk through liquid mud?”

  ☞  If “Cornelius is disgusted with Nyack” what in the world does Martin Knapp (Broadaxe) think of it as a village?—Messenger. Martin lives here and that is more than he could do in Haverstraw.

  ☞  Grand preparations for the holidays at Clarksville. Capt. Abe Knapp is to have a big shooting-match at his place, on Christmas day and a Grand Social Hop on Friday evening, 31st inst., New Year’s Eve.

  ☞  The Parsonage Guild of the M. E. church. of Spring Valley, will give a Musical and literary Entertainment in the church, on Friday evening, 17th inst., for the benefit of the church. It will be worth attending. Admission twenty-five cents.

  ☞  A colt owned by A. B. Conger and valued at $1500, became frightened at the ferryboat bell, on the 11.30 boat, on Monday morning, and managed to throw himself into the river. He was towed out by some boys, dried off, blanketed, given a drink of brandy, and in the afternoon started across the river again.

BURIED IN A WELL

        About four o’clock on Friday afternoon lost, while a man named George Baker was engaged in stoning up a well on the premises of Rev. James Quinn, in the village of Suffern, the bank above him caved in and buried the unfortunate man to the depth of twelve feet, the well, being about forty feet deep. Intelligence of the catastrophe spread rapidly, and many willing hands set to work to save, if possible, the entombed man’s life. The earth, being of a gravelly nature, continued to fall in until a crib was erected, which was soon smashed hy another cave of earth. A seeded crib was erected which withstood the pressure, and at twelve o’clock on Sunday night the workmen reached the object of their search, who was found in a standing position and not badly bruised leaving the inference that Mr. Baker must have met his death by suffocation. The deceased was thirty years of age

December 12, 1925 – 100 YEARS AGO

Pearl River News

WHEN WIFE WAS ACQUITTED ON CHARGE OF ASSAULT ON SISTER, HUSBAND TURNS ON SPOUSE

        As a result of a family row that broke out between the female members of the Smith family of West Haverstraw when Katie Smith had her sister-in-law, Elizabeth, arrested for assault which was alleged was committed while the two were on the White Row in West Haverstraw which was not supported Monday night in the hearing before Judge Larkin, the assault charge being uncorroborated and being as the Justice saw it without substantial foundation, Mrs. Smith was discharged but immediately re-arrested on the complaint of her husband, Joseph, who alleged his wife was a bigamist in having married him on October 31st, 1925 while she was still the wife of George Lee of Haverstraw whom she married in 1923 and from whom she had never been divorced.

        The unexpected declaration of the husband and his positive charge with supported proof that his wife, who was Miss Elizabeth Stalter, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Banghart Stalter before her first marriage, came as a dramatic climax to the domestic brawl that was started by the women at their Samsondale Avenue encounter.

        The new startling and unexpected charge made by the husband who was presumed to have hardly recovered from the honeymoon stage rather surprised the joyful defendant following her acquittal by Judge Larkin so that she was temporarily unable to meet the accusation making only a halfhearted denial to the charge of the husband who apparently was with his sister in the domestic disturbance.

        As a result, the charge being a felony one and no hearing desired, there was only one recourse left to the Justice and that was to hold Mrs. Smith in $100 bail for her appearance before the Grand Jury now in session at New City. The young woman’s father furnished cash bail of $100. to prevent his daughter’s being locked up in New City to await the determination of a Grand Jury inquisition.

December 12, 1975 – 50 YEARS AGO

The Journal News

TAXI ON THE LOOSE ROLLS INTO LAKE

[Image: Taxi cab lays submerged in Lake Suzanne as driver Bela Szatmari, right, looks on. Journal News Staff photo by Mark Abusamra]

        A Spring Valley man left his taxicab this morning after starting the engine and returned moments later to find the vehicle in a nearby lake half under water.

Bela Szatmari, who owns the cab which he drives in New York City, started his motor this morning at about 7:30 a.m. and then went inside his home briefly.

        When his wife looked outside the window at their 14 Vincent Road home moments later, she saw the cab sitting in Lake Suzanne about 100 feet away.

Szatmari theorized that he may have accidentally left the brake off when he started the motor and the car rolled down his driveway, across the road and over a patch of grass into the water. A large rock lying on the grass to keep vehicles from rolling into the water was apparently pushed aside by the cab.

        Police summoned a tow truck but the location of the vehicle, about 10 feet from shore, required special equipment, including a wet-suited mechanic.

Szatmari's wife said they did not have collision insurance on the cab but were uncertain if they were covered for the damage to the vehicle.

        The taxi light of top of the cab remained on for more than an hour after the car was submerged, but went out before the extraction of the taxi was to begin It was unclear this morning whether the inside of the cab had been filled with water as well.  —BOB SELTZER

This Week in Rockland (#FBF Flashback Friday) is prepared by Clare Sheridan for the Historical Society of Rockland County. © 2025 by The Historical Society of Rockland County. #FBF Flashback Friday may be reprinted only with written permission from the HSRC. To learn about the HSRC’s mission, upcoming events or programs, visit www.RocklandHistory.org or call (845) 634-9629.