Week of July 10

July 8, 1876 – 150 YEARS AGO

Rockland County Journal

THE OLD STONE HOUSE — RESIDENCE OF CORNELIUS T. SMITH, ESQ., AND THE FAMILY OF HIS SON-IN-LAW, JOHN L. SALISBURY

[Image: Salisbury (Cornelison) House, South Nyack, ca. 1935. From the Isabelle Savell collection of the Nyack Library, via NYHeritage.org.]

        This is one of the few remaining landmarks of the Revolutionary period, erected in 1770, but so well preserved that the passerby, unacquainted with its eventful history, little dreams what stirring incidents were once associated with it. It was from this building that at the commencement of the Revolution, Michael Cornelison, Sr., was taken by a party of British and Tories, after they had sacked the place, and conveyed to the old Sugar House in the city of New York. The morning following, his heroic wife Catharine made her way to the city, leaving behind her nine children, determined, if possible, to procure his release. There she found that she too was to be detained a prisoner. With much difficulty, she obtained permission to visit her husband daily, and she soon became an angel of blessing to more than one poor patriot prisoner in that crowded den of horrors. After a detention of six months, she was allowed to return home, and, shortly after, through her indefatigable exertions, her husband was released on parole. The name of Catherine Cornelison thus secured a place in the annals of her country not to be effaced so long as they endure. After the smoking party had destroyed everything they could lay hands upon, they passed to the upper rooms in search of members of the family, a well-known tory leading the way, candle in hand. Hearing their approach, Michael Cornelison, Jr., about 22 years of age, a son of Mrs. Cornelison, sprang up on one of the large crossbeams overhead, stored with quantities of old lumber and rubbish. To his horror, the guard of his watch caught in a rough splinter of the beam, by which it was torn from his pocket and left swinging to and fro below him like the pendulum of a clock, its ticking sounding upon his quickened ears like the blows of a hammer. The heart of the tory had evidently begun to relent as he witnessed the appalling misery he had brought upon a friend and neighbor, and as he entered the room with the light, his eye caught the watch, and above the beam, its trembling owner. Quickly shading the light so as to throw that part of the room as much in the shadow as possible, he soon found an excuse for hurrying the party away.

        The building has been but slightly remodeled since that eventful period. In the old joiner work is still discernable the marks of a bullet which the enemy fired through the windows.

        This old house was handsomely decorated on the Fourth with a large variety of flags, which were hung in clusters and singly, and festooned in a remarkably graceful manner. The colors of the bright bunting streamers which were festooned over the vine-covered side of the house on the west headed beautifully with the rich green which Nature has furnished there in such abundance. 

July 9, 1926 – 100 YEARS AGO

Pearl River News

BECKERLE WINS AT BLUE HILL COUNTRY CLUB

        In the finals, at the Blue Hill Country Club, for the Montgomery Maze handicap trophy, Lawrence Beckerle, of Spring Valley, defeated Alexander Murry, of Montvale, 1 up on the 18th hole. Both players played an excellent game and quite a gallery followed them. Mr. Beckerle had three strokes handicap on Mr. Murry, and the medal score was: Mr. Beckerle 90; Mr. Murry, 85.

MORE SIGNATURES NEEDED TO ASSURE FIRE DISTRICT

        Forty-five signatures are still needed on the petition for a Fire District in Nanuet. If you are a resident of Nanuet and have not yet subscribed to this petition it is your duty to sign it at once.

        Mr. Sylvester Hutton has worked for the past two months gathering signers to this petition. Other townsmen are helping to get the signatures. Nearby towns have tried this system and found it the best method of supporting their Fire Company.

        Carnivals mean an extra lot of work for a few people. No one will feel the little extra each year to raise the money to finance the Fire Company’s expenses.

        Telephone Messrs. S. Hutton, Keyser, Kahlbaum, Ullman or Knapp and find out where you can sign this petition.

        Your insurance rates would be doubled if there was no Fire Company. Sign as soon as you can.

July 9, 1976 – 50 YEARS AGO

The Journal News

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS — ARTIST HAS HISTORY HANGUP

        The Bicentennial may be over, but in at least one part of Rockland, the beat goes on.

        Case in point: 25-year-old mixed-media artist Richard Lee of Piermont, who on Saturday at noon will recreate the hanging of British Maj. John Andre on Tappan’s Treason Hill, using an effigy he has especially prepared for the occasion.

        The artist, who holds a fine arts degree from St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill, got the idea for the recreation—and a subsequent film he hopes to make about the event—from incidents he experienced over the past 10 years.

        Lee’s family, the Walter Lees of 34 Andre Hill Road, Tappan, have been witnesses to a continuing stream of picture-taking history buffs and the merely curious who were drawn to the Andre monument in front of their house.

        The simple granite stone marks the area where on the morning of Oct. 2 or 3, 1780, Maj. John Andre—found to be in league with the infamous Benedict Arnold—was hanged by the Americans as a spy.

        Over the years, sightseers would ask the Lees exactly where the hanging took place. Urged to embellish the historic drama, the family would indicate a large tree on their front lawn as the hanging tree.

        Actually, Lee says, Andre was hanged at a gallows now long since gone. But the public’s curiosity, and the Bicentennial—so closely associated with Andre’s part in the American Revolution—inspired Lee to plan a history happening of his own.

        Claiming no aspirations of becoming Rockland’s second “Mr. Bicentennial,” a designation he leaves to Nyack’s Murray Fornaro (who will recreate the Boston Tea Party in Piermont Sunday), Lee set about to fashion a suitable likeness of Andre.

        After creating a life-mask of himself from plaster-of-paris—a literally painstaking process when his blond moustache became momentarily stuck to the mold—Lee constructed a life-size mannequin of the soldier from plaster, gauze, and chicken wire. With the addition of an authentic British Adjutant General’s red dress uniform he had made for the occasion, white breeches, ruffled shirt, and boots, “Maj. John Andre” was born.

        Lee now has the 40-lb mannequin hanging by a gallows rope from his living room ceiling. According to historic record, white silk scarves discreetly cover the face and tie the hands behind the major’s back.

        As a second part of the project, Lee hopes eventually to create a 15-minute film narrative about the event, using his 17-year-old brother David in the retracing of Andre’s final march up Treason Hill.

        Once the project is over, Lee plans to keep the mannequin as a rather unique conversation piece. Already, “John” as Lee calls him, has had varying effects on people.

        Lee’s Journal-News carrier was recently so astounded by seeing the “Major,” that she returned the next day with four of her girlfriends just to prove he wasn’t a mirage.

This Week in Rockland (#FBF Flashback Friday) is prepared by Clare Sheridan for the Historical Society of Rockland County. © 2026 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.