Week of October 3
October 2, 1875 – 150 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal
BURGLARS
On Tuesday night of last week burglars tried to effect an entrance in W. H. Jaycox’s carriage-shop, at New City. but were frightened away by two young men, who occupy the second floor as a paint-shop, and who hearing the noise enquired who was there, when they took flight. They next visited Mr. Tunis Tallman’s blacksmith shop, entering by springing the double doors. They selected a stout pair of tongs, an old rasp, and a heavy cutting bar, from thence they proceeded to Mr. P. DeBevoise’s store and forced open the rear door by prying off the casing. Passing inside, they forced another door into the store proper and helped themselves to about $10 in small change from the till, and from $80 to $40 worth of postage stamps and one set of earrings. Nothing else has been found missing except the key to one door, which was found by some workmen under the carriage steps in front of C. A. Sprague’s residence, while removing it to repair the road and gutter. The thieves are doubtless the same who have been operating along the railroad at Spring Valley and northward to Haverstraw.
AROUND HOME
☞ Monday night’s Nyack Express train collided with a lumber wagon in which was three drunken men, at Homestead station; one of the men was thrown up about ten feet, but escaped injury. The wagon made good kindling wood.
☞ Children’s Church will be held next Sunday at the Piermont Reformed Church. Subject of sermon, “Little beginnings, big endings.” Singing by the children and quarterly review.
☞ Our new hydrants work admirably; a stream of solid water was thrown from that on the corner of Broadway and De Pew Avenue, on Monday, through a seven-eighths inch nozzle, a distance of one hundred and fifteen feet.
☞ A disastrous fire occurred at the Garnerville Print Works last Sunday. The overseer of the print department, Mr. Peter J. Dennen was crushed to death by the fall of a portion of the building and four other men were quite badly bruised. The loss is estimated at $225,000, fully insured.
October 1, 1925 – 100 YEARS AGO
Pearl River News
SAVE THE RABBITS
The New York State Conservation Commission has granted additional protection on cotton tail rabbits in Rockland County, as follows: The open season, as defined in the Game Law Syllabus, on cotton-tail rabbits in Rockland County, shall be from November 1st to December 30th, inclusive, and no person shall take more than six such rabbits in one day, and only in the manner prescribed in this Syllabus. As this protection was granted subsequent to the publication of the Syllabus, it is the desire of the Sportsmen’s Game and Fish Protective Association, N.Y., that due notice be posted in newspapers, and we further intend to distribute and post notices throughout the County.
SCHOOL COP ON THE JOB
The two-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. McClenin, from South Main Street, wandered from her home Monday morning. She was seen walking along by the Pearl River Auto Company and about to cross Central Avenue when Officer Kennedy spied her and noticed that she was alone. He asked her name and the only reply he could get was “Doris.” Knowing the child must have been lost he took her in his car and tried to locate her home, but without avail. About this time Mrs. Geiger came along, took Doris, and made a thorough search about town and was about to give up when the little girl’s mother appeared and claimed Doris as her own.
October 2, 1975 – 50 YEARS AGO
The Journal News
MAJOR JOHN ANDRE IN TAPPAN, A TRIP BACK IN TIME
[Image: Major John Andre, the famous British spy hanged in Tappan 195 years ago today, died without children. The ill-fated accomplice of Benedict Arnold came from a large family, however, and a descendant of Andre’s uncle paid a visit to Rockland recently to walk in the footsteps of his 18th Century cousin.]
Picture the scene.
It’s the ’76 House in Tappan. The day is late, and Andre is having his last meal in the hamlet. Seated around the handsome stranger from across the sea, the Americans at the inn are interested and curious: What twist of fate has caused Andre to be in Tappan?
Andre pauses before answering. “It was because of Paulding,” he says. “If it had not been for Paulding I would not be here today.”
If the foregoing sounds like Revolutionary War history from the year 1780, you certainly know your Revolution Actually, the scene took place only a few weeks ago and it was neither play-acting nor a re-enactment, but a real-life event brought about by a modern-day switch.
Major John Andre, the famous British spy hanged in Tappan 195 years ago today, was never married and died without children.
However, the ill-fated accomplice of Benedict Arnold came from a large family, and this year a descendant of John Louis Andre (1730-1811), who was Major Andre’s uncle, paid a visit to Rockland County for the first time and walked briefly in the footsteps of his Eighteenth Century cousin.
It was this living Andre, James Andre, who dined recently at the ’76 House.
A wealthy sheep and cattle rancher from South Australia, James Andre was in the United States to attend an international meeting in New York City, but he had not forgotten a story his father once told him about meeting a man from Westchester County years ago.
named Gouverneur Paulding. The man had told Andre’s father he was a descendant of John Paulding, the leader of the trio of young men in Tarrytown who had captured Major John Andre in 1780, thus thwarting Benedict Arnold’s plans to surrender West Point. Consequently, at the first opportunity, James Andre visited Westchester hoping to locate the same Gouverneur Paulding or at least one of the man’s relatives.
Unfortunately, the Australian learned Paulding had died in 1965 and without survivors, but the search was not a total loss. While passing through Tarrytown, James Andre was “captured” himself by a group of local history enthusiasts who soon took him to the exact spot where Major John Andre had been waylaid by the Paulding gang. The group, members of the Historical Society of the Tarry-towns, also took the rancher across the Hudson River to Tappan, the ’76 House, and the hill where Major Andre was hanged.
Being on the scene of these famous events proved an exciting experience to James Andre, who heretofore had only read or heard about them.
“James Andre actually looks something like the portraits of Major Andre,” said Ginny McCarthy, of Tappan, a member of the Tappantown (Historical) Society who accompanied the Australian while here and who arranged the dinner at the ’76 House in his honor.
The two historical societies, she said, also gave James Andre an engraving depicting Major Andre’s capture. The engraving was reprinted for the bicentennial by the two societies this year and was restruck from an 1845 steel plate based on a painting by Asher B. Durand.
“James Andre is quite charming,” said Mrs. McCarthy. “He knows much, much more about the Andre family of that time than one might have supposed, being he is so far away from England and this area. He brought with him a genealogy of the Andre family and color photographs of some Eighteenth-Century family miniatures he owns. One miniature is of Major Andre’s father, Anthony.”
Mrs. McCarthy, a nutritionist who is interested in food, was amused that Andre, a sheep rancher, ordered lamb for his dinner at the ’76 House.
“Wouldn’t you know,” she said. “But it led to an interesting conversation on the subject, Andy Arab, the young chef at the restaurant, came out of the kitchen and discussed the merits of Australian and American lamb with him.”
Andre, who is 66 and semi-retired, she said, owns about 2,000 acres of ranchland near a town called Millicent. The name of his ranch is Ceres.
“He has two sons, one named John, who runs the ranch for him, and another named Roger, who lives in New Zealand,” she said. “His wife’s name is Gretta.”
Mrs. McCarthy regretted that a number of people interested in local history and active in historical societies here were not able to meet Andre.
“He was here only a few hours and there just was not time to contact everybody,” she said, adding it was a time of year when many people were on vacation.
Copies of the same bicentennial print of Andre’s capture given to James Andre are available from the Tappantown Society for $25, she said.
“The picture is a charming period piece showing John Andre pleading with three captors, one of whom, John Paulding, holds the plans for West Point taken from inside Andre’s stocking. It is a great storytelling picture for schools and libraries, and authentic Americana for the home,” she added.
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.
