Week of June 27
June 26, 1875 – 150 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal
AROUND HOME
☞ About noon Thursday a party of drunken young men from Piermont broke in the door and windows of Mr. Ahren’s Hotel, at Closter. The proprietor and several others defended it, firing several shots at the crowd. Three or more of the latter were wounded. No arrests were made.
☞ Latest Summer patterns of bologna at Hubbell’s “Refuge for the fatigued.” Lightning-struck crackers and revolutionized walking-cheese, prepared a la mode de Figi, served as luxuries.
☞ The “Brick church” at West New Hempstead, Ramapo, is to be repainted and newly carpeted. This and the Spring Valley Reformed church are two of the handsomest interiorly in the county.
☞ The handsome office addition to the residence of Dr. J. O. Polhemus is the workmanship of Wm. Ellis Blauvelt, who also removed back Mr. Charles Humphrey’s building, corner Broadway and Main Street.
☞ Samuel Howe, Esq. of Ramapo, having recovered his health, which was very feeble, among the hills of Rockland, has embarked in the Howe National Baking Co., at 576 Second Avenue, N.Y. We wish him unlimited success.
☞ S. H. Doughty, of South Nyack, has recently sold to Mr. John P. Collins, about one half acre of ground near the junction of Broadway and the railroad, for the sum of $2,000. — Mr. C. will sooner erect a handsome residence on the plot.
☞ Water your flowers night and morning if you would keep them looking fresh. Early in the morning, while the ground is yet damp with dew, is the best time for weeding. Weeds growing among flowers mar their beauty to a great extent.
☞ Christie & Morris Combination Troupe, of Nyack, will give a performance, at the Opera House, on Saturday night, July 3d, for the benefit of Henry Ennis, who was wounded by a premature blast this week. The object is a good one, and the house should be crowded.
☞ It is impossible for anyone, either male or female, to have a hat out of fashion this Summer. Anything, from a postage-stamp to a half-acre hat covered with a dozen ordinary-sized flower-beds, with a pumpkin-vine in one corner, is in style for the ladies, and we are glad of it.
June 25, 1925 – 100 YEARS AGO
Pearl River News
ANNUAL DINNER AND RECEPTION A BIG SUCCESS — Rockland County Society’s Members and Guests Enjoy Function at Nyack Club Saturday Evening — Credit Goes to Mrs. Serven
Nyack, June 22 — The most delightful dinner ever held by the Rockland County Society took place Saturday evening at the Nyack Club. The Vice President, “Pop” McKenney, in his usual chivalrous manner insisted that the affair was such a success because it was managed by so capable a president and chairman of the entertainment committee, Mrs. Lulu Edsall Serven, and the President insisted that it was a success because of the co-operation and assistant of the Vice President and the committee.
Members and guests from all parts of the county renewed acquaintances and enjoyed the delightful music, singing and storytelling by the entertainers. Mrs. Lulu Edsall Serven presided, and Mrs. E. H. Maynard read a paper written by Miss Cornelia Bedell entitled “Heroes of the Past Discover Us.”
This was a story about Rockland County historical figures, Chief Sesewemu, Captain David Pieterson De Vries and Anthony Wayne coming back to visit the scenes of their activities, and their delight to know that people still cared, when they discovered the activities of the Rockland County Society in marking places of historic interest in the county.
The members entertained a large number of guests for dancing during the evening. Among those who attended from Pearl River were Mr. and Mrs. W. Serven, Mr. and Mrs. J. Lovatt, Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Evans, Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Woodworth, Dr. and Mrs. S. R. Monteith and Mr. O. D. Rike.
June 26, 1975 – 50 YEARS AGO
The Journal News
LAST HUDSON SHARK IN 1881 PUTS OUR FEARS OUT TO SEA
[Image: Illustration from the Journal News, June 26, 1975.]
Rocklanders still quivering from the movie “Jaws,” which opened here Friday, can relax.
The last recorded shark sightings in this area of the Hudson River were in 1881, according to officials in the state Department of Environmental Conservation. At that time, several dusky sharks were sighted as far north as Peekskill and down into the East River.
William Kelly of the regional office of the conservation department in New Paltz said the shark information is contained in a 1936 biological study of the lower Hudson watershed.
The survey also details the exploits of a Gilbert Ward of Cornwall, N.Y., who in 1876 struck and captured a shark while rowing in the river near West Point.
Conservation officer William Griesbeck of Garnerville said he also knows of no sightings, bites, or attacks by sharks in recent years.
Fishermen in this area would have caught them in their nets, but he said he doesn’t recall any.
Bob Gabrielson of Upper Nyack, a commercial fisherman who has been setting nets in the Tappan Zee for years, said he has never caught a shark and has never heard of anyone else catching one.
There have been reports of sightings, but these were probably of sturgeons, which run up to seven feet long in the area, said Gabrielson.
However, not everyone is convinced the Hudson is free of sharks.
“There is no reason why sharks couldn’t and shouldn’t come into the Hudson River. The New York harbor is healthy enough,” said William Dovel of the Boyce Townsend Institute, which is studying the fish species in the river.
Although he hasn’t come across any, he said there’s an open passage from the ocean to the river and there’s no reason why sharks wouldn’t enter it.
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.
