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This Week in Rockland: Newspaper Excerpts: Flashback Friday: Week of August 16

2024-08-16 TWIR Image-Orangeburg Fair

August 15, 1874 – 150 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal

A NATIVE KILLED
       On Wednesday morning last Jerry Martine brought into our office a package, which on being opened was found to contain a dead rattlesnake three feet four inches long, with seven rattles. It was found on a road in the Ramapo Mountains and killed by a charcoal burner. The circumference of the reptile at its largest part was about six inches. Rattlesnakes and copperheads are yet abundant in the mountainous portions of Rockland, but people are rarely or never bitten by them.

August 17, 1934 – 90 YEARS AGO
Pearl River News

ENTRIES FOR ROCKLAND COUNTY FAIR EXHIBITS SURPASS EXPECTATIONS
[Image: Orangeburg Fair ca. 1920. John Scott Collection, courtesy of the Nyack Library, via NYHeritage.org.]
       Plans for the Orangeburg Fair were made Monday night at a meeting of the board of directors, held at the hotel on the fair grounds. John Kilby, president of the association, presided at the meeting and others present were:
       Judge Arthur S. Tompkins of Nyack, Judge Oscar W. Ehrhorn of Blauvelt, Arthur W. Barnes of Westwood, McCarroll Leiper of Blauvelt, William J. Elliott of West Nyack, Peter Stauffacher of Grand View, W. C. Townsend of Spring Valley, Harvey Dean of Closter, Clifford Poole of Nyack, F. Jerome, Loveland of New City, William McCabe of Haverstraw, Richard B. Mihalko of Spring Valley and F. Comeskey of Closter.
       Mr. Loveland was appointed a committee of one to arrange for fireworks exhibits two nights of the fair. Mr. Elliott reported that entries in the poultry department have been coming in rapidly and that the time for entries has been extended to August 24. The judges in the department will be James Glascow of Mahwah and George Montgomery of Arden.
       Announcement was made by Mrs. Roswell Haring, secretary of the Ladies’ Auxiliary, that entries in that department will close on August 20. Mr. Elliott announced that he will begin today to mail out 1,000 premium books to exhibitors.
       Entries for the horse show indicate that the show will be one of the finest in the history of the Orangeburg Fair. Racing entries are also coming in rapidly and good cards will be arranged.
       The concessions, which are in charge of Mr. Poole, are being taken up rapidly and an excellent midway is assured.

August 14, 1974 – 50 YEARS AGO
Our Town

OPINION SPLIT ON NIXON RESIGNATION
       On the same day he was nominated to run for president in 1967, Richard M. Nixon announced that he would resign from the nation’s highest office.
       The 37th president’s 37th address to the nation was his last. In homes in Orangetown families watched the President’s announcement on television with mixed feelings. Those feelings, both pro and anti Nixon, were expressed in bars and taverns in Orangetown, in firehouses, and other places where his speech was carried on all television networks.
       On Friday, Our Town went out to sample public reaction to Mr. Nixon’s resignation. What we found was that the Watergate scandal, the impeachment proceedings, and the resignation itself continued to divide people in Orangetown.
       Some felt sorry for the president, some thought he should remain in office. Others felt he got what he deserved, while still others urged further prosecution.
       William F. Maughan of Pearl River said the resignation was “a very sad thing,” but feels Nixon had no choice but to resign, and perhaps should have resigned earlier in the proceedings.
       Kevin Curran of Orangeburg: “Resignation was the right thing for him. I don’t think he could run the country with the impeachment going on.”
       For Curran, the nation’s new president, Gerald Ford, remains an unknown quality. “The man is president now, and the country doesn’t even know him. He was never elected as president, and we don’t know anything about him.”
       Perhaps, says Curran, Ford will resist the urge to gain personal power in office—an urge he believes may have helped bring about the downfall of Richard Nixon.
       Mary Infuso of Northvale, N.J., feels sorry for the president and believes he was treated unfairly by his opposition and by the news media.
       “I thought it was kind of sad. He was a good president. He didn’t do anything that deserved this kind of a treatment. In spite of it, he did quite well.”
       Were the president’s misdeeds serious enough to have warranted the impeachment investigation? “No,” says Mrs. Infuso. “It was politics and the press that sort of crucified him.”
       Mrs. John Lick is the wife of the president of the Orangeburg Republican Club. Her views are somewhat different. “I think he should have done it sooner,” she says. “If he had done it sooner he would have saved himself a lot of heartache.”
       Mike Peters, of Tappan, says the resignation was the proper course of action of President Nixon. “I think he should have resigned. He couldn’t have stayed around much longer. I think they should continue to prosecute and continue to investigate.”
       Feelings about the new president? “I don’t know anything about him.”
       In Pearl River, Judith Ryan believes that the resignation is a natural culmination to the Watergate proceedings. She was also critical of Mr. Nixon’s resignation speech.
       “I agree with Roger Mudd (a CBS news commentator) that he didn’t make any mention of Watergate and his responsibility in it, or of his guilt in it. He just gave a very dramatic speech appealing to the emotions of people. He came off in a very gallant way, and I think he will try to make people feel sorry for him. I think, in all, it was a good thing he resigned rather than put the country through an impeachment process.”
       Mrs. Ryan believes that criminal prosecution proceedings against Mr. Nixon should continue.
       “As one of the commentators said, all of the other poor fellows were prosecuted, Ehrlichman, Halderman [sic] and the others.”
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This Week in Rockland (#FBF Flashback Friday) is prepared by Clare Sheridan on behalf of the Historical Society of Rockland County. © 2024 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.


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