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This Week in Rockland: Newspaper Excerpts: Flashback Friday: Week of March 15

March 14, 1874 – 150 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal

AROUND HOME
   ☞ The ferryboat, Tappan Zee, with the Chrystenah in tow, arrived at her dock on Monday. The first named boat has been coppered and is now running regularly between Nyack and Tarrytown.
   ☞ On Saturday last, a young man employed in a house of the Knickerbocker Ice Co., at Rockland Lake, fell through a trap door a distance of thirty feet, and received severe injuries about the neck and body.
   ☞ The Rockland Lake Ice Company have stored over 1000 tons of fine ice this season, and two elegant new wagons, at a cost of about $1500, have been added to their force. See their advertisement in our columns.
   ☞ Mrs. Charlotte Knapp, a widow, recently residing at Tomkins Cove, died suddenly, in Warren Village, on Wednesday evening, while on her way to a prayer meeting at the M.E. church.
   ☞ Styles and John R. Merritt, the Piermont ship carpenters, are each building a decked-over sailing skiff to enter the spring races of the mosquito fleet. Commodore Clark is making new suite for his craft and expects to retain the laurels won.
   ☞ A blonde young gentleman not far from Nyack went to see a young lady recently and left her a lock of his hair. The young lady is undecided as to whether she will exhibit it at the next county Fair as a specimen of native flax, or use it to kill rats with.

March 18, 1924 – 100 YEARS AGO
Pearl River News

BANDITS HAUNT HAVERSTRAW — Return a Second Time
       Bandits visited another butcher shop in Haverstraw, Saturday night, March 8, owned by Flynn & Lawson. They ordered everybody to “stick ’em up,” but one of the partners, William Flynn, in a room at the rear of the store, hearing the commotion and seeing the men advancing with drawn revolvers, stuffed the cash from the cash drawer into his pocket and made a dash for the side door on Liberty street.
       The bandits had left a man on watch at the street corner, and another in their car ready for a quick escape. When these men saw Flynn they fired at him, but the bullets went wild, and Flynn continued to Broad street, and then to Rockland where, in the store of John Anderson, he gave the alarm.
       The store had just cashed a check for forty-two dollars for Anthony Delisio, from a barber shop across the street, and he stood with the money in his hand when the bandits entered. He gave up this sum; and it was all the robbers got!
       John E. Hughes got the number of the license tag, which was 186,373 N.J. 1924.
       Lawson and Delision afterward, in West Hoboken, identified 3 pictures as those of the Haverstraw visitation. And the end is not yet.
       It must be this hold-up gang considers that the meat markets are making money these days.

March 16, 1974 – 50 YEARS AGO
The Journal News

PILOT FORCED TO LAND ON THRUWAY
       An emergency landing on the New York State Thruway Friday cost a Pomona pilot a traffic summons and $10,000 in damage to his aircraft.
       State police at Tarrytown report that Martin Marin, no age given, of Haley Drive, Pomona, crash landed his single-engine Cherokee Arrow near the recently opened Airmont exit of the Thruway about 1:55 p.m. 
       Marin told police he experienced engine trouble immediately after taking off from Rockland County Airport, and was attempting to return to the airport when his engine stalled. Marin’s plane struck a culvert on landing, and came to rest on the northbound ramp of Exit 14, police said.
       The pilot was unhurt, according to the troopers, but the plane suffered extensive damage to the propeller and right wing. Marin was ticketed for landing on a public highway, a violation of the General Business Law.

POMONA BOY RESCUES FRIEND FROM DROWNING
[Image: Adam Gitlitz (left) and Richard Farley smile together after Richard's rescue. Journal News photograph by Al Witt.]
       An 11-year-old Pomona boy who says he wants to be a lifeguard when he grows up got a head start on his future profession this week. He saved a five-year-old neighbor from drowning in a backyard pool.
       Ramapo police credit Richard Farley, of 120 E. Willow Tree Road, with saving the life of Adam Gitlitz, of 102 E. Willow Tree Road, after Adam had fallen into a neighbor’s pool Wednesday afternoon.
       Richard told The Journal-News he was walking on East Willow Tree Road at about 4:30 p.m. when he heard screams coming from a neighbor’s backyard. Rushing to the scene, he found Adam “going down a few times” in about four feet of water.
       “I broke a piece of wood off a bench they had there,” Richard said, “and reached it out to him. He was about five feet away.”
       By manipulating the board, Richard was able to keep the semi-conscious child afloat, until his mother, Susan Gitlitz arrived and hauled him out.
       A witness said Adam Gitlitz was playing near the pool when he fell in.
       Richard’s quick thinking “apparently saved the boy’s life,” said Ramapo Police Sgt. Duane Whitaker. He said that Ptl. Morton Haber, who investigated the accident, recommended Richard for commendation.
       Richard, a fifth-grader at the Carlton School who says he enjoys math and social studies, said he knew the Kitlitz boy from around the neighborhood. A member of the Rockland County Dolphins swimming team, said a lifeguard “seems like a good thing to be” when he grows up.
       Asked how it feels to be a hero, Richard replied, “To tell you the truth, it feels pretty good.”
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