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This Week in Rockland: Newspaper Excerpts: Flashback Friday: Week of August 30

2024-08-30 TWIR Image-Lutheran Church PR

August 29, 1874 – 150 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal

AROUND HOME
   ☞ Burglars tried to break into the residence of David Ebersole, Piermont Avenue, one night last week, but were frightened off by Mr. E.
   ☞ Tilton’s three words, “Grace, Mercy and Peace,” brought him $7,000. We will write 30,000 or 300,000 for that money and guarantee their quality.
   ☞ Capt. J. V. B. Johnson is engaged in cultivating as fine a crop of tobacco this year as we have ever seen. His farm is between Orangeburgh and Sparkill.
   ☞ The picnic at Riverside Park, on Monday, of the [German-American] D.O.H. Lodge, was a jolly affair, and the dancing lasted until half-past one o’clock Tuesday morning.
   ☞ We hear that many citizens of our county are trying to induce General Daniel Ullman to allow them to bring forward his name as a candidate for Congress.
   ☞ For the last month, with the exception of two or three warm days the weather has been intensely delightful, and the number of excursions and picnics has been legion.
   ☞ Chas. A. Brush, Gen. D. Ullmann and W. C. Moore were recently elected delegates to the Convention of the Diocese, to be held in St. John’s Chapel, N.Y., early in September.
   ☞ The many friends of Stephen Merritt, Jr., of our village, will sympathize deeply with him in the death of his widely-beloved father which occurred on the 21st inst., at New York.

August 28, 1924 – 100 YEARS AGO
Pearl River News

LUTHERANS TO LAY CHURCH STONE SEPT. 14 — NEIGHBORING PASTORS TO ASSIST IN CEREMONIES FOR NEW CHURCH
[Image: Lutheran Church, Pearl River. Undated postcard, Dexter Press. Image courtesy of the Vintage Postcard Company.]
       A committee has been appointed by the Church Council of the First Lutheran Church to prepare for the cornerstone laying of the new church now being erected on the corner of Hunt avenue and Main street.
       It is planned to hold the service at 2:30 o’clock on Sunday afternoon, September 14. A prominent speaker will be invited to make the address, and neighboring pastors, together with their people, will be asked to take part in the service, which, if weather permits, will be held in the open.
       Refreshments will be served in the parish house basement after the service.

August 29, 1974 – 50 YEARS AGO
The Journal News

“FEDERAL LAW PROTECTING MURAL”
       A controversial mural in the Nyack post office cannot be removed unless the wall it appears on is demolished or removed, according to the U.S. General Service Administration (GSA).
       In a recent letter written to Dominick Sgammato, postmaster of the Westchester Sectional Center of the Post Office, the GSA used a 1953 California case to guide the post office on what can be done about the painting.
       And what it all means is that the mural will probably stay where it is.
       The Nyack mural is one of two panels painted in 1937 by the American artist Jacob Getler Smith under the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP), one of several art programs instituted between 1933 and 1943.
       The mural depicts scenes from what historians call “Kieft’s Indian War,” which took place in and around the Nyacks between 1643 and 1644.
       Several historians have defended the mural as “historically accurate” in its portrayal of the Wacquaesgeek Indians retaliating against early Dutch settlers for a raid against their tribe.
       The painting has been criticized, however, by the Rockland County Native American Committee, a citizens group, and the county’s Commission of Human Rights.
       In particular, they object to a section of the panel depicting an Indian with one hand around a woman’s neck while brandishing a tomahawk in the other. A house is burning in the backround [sic].
       The critics contend the overall impression given in the mural is that an Indian “massacre” is taking place against white settlers. They say that impression is inaccurate and shows Indian peoples in a negative light.
       According to the GSA, only once before has a piece of art from several federal programs come under heavy attack from the public. That occurred in 1953 when several patriotic organizations in California, after failing to have a mural removed by the programs’ supervisors, sought recourse in Congress.
       The mural they opposed consisted of 29 panels of U.S. history installed in the Rincon Annex post office building in San Francisco. A resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives where a Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds was appointed to conduct hearings.
       According to the GSA letter: “The Rincon case has served as the precedent for Congress not to take legislative action concerning artistic merit or historical accuracy. The responsibility remains in the hands of those charged with the programs.
       “Art works can be removed only if the building is being demolished, or if the wall on which they are located, is being removed. In the latter case, the mural is relocated in another Federal building where it will receive maximum public exposure.”
       “The mural will stay in place,” said Sgammato. “If there’s still a problem, I guess it will have to be taken up with the GSA.”
       Although the Rincon case serves as the precedent in this matter, there is no reason why the precedent cannot be seriously and successfully challenged, according to Ann Price of Pomona, who has proposed removal of the mural.
       “If we let this precedent stand, we are taking the easy way out,” she said.
       “New precedents can also be set. The mural can be moved to a museum and if people want to see it they can visit the museum.
       “On the other hand. I propose that an American Indian re-create the mural from his own conception and hang his mural alongside the existing mural.
       “Censorship of art is a very ticklish subject, but when a mural is hanging in a public building, peoples’ feelings must be taken into account,” she said.
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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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