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Flashback Friday Archive 2019-20: Flashback Friday: Week of July 3

July 2, 1870 – 150 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal

Written for the Journal
AN ODE FOR INDEPENDENCE DAY
By Fannie A. Dean

Again, the joyous Fourth appears.
Of all the year the, gladdest, best;
When soldiers joy, and heroes rest
Beneath their honored weight of years,
And tell of battles fought and won
By him—the noble Washington!

Oh, great and glorious chieftain! thou
Who rested not ’midst war's alarms,
But bravely called “to arms! to arms!”
Nor ‘neath the British yoke would bow;
Till from its bitter bond set free,
A nation shouted, Liberty!

To thee we owe this day of Joy,
To thee glad peons ever rise
And ring beneath the starry skies,
From aged sire, or mirthful boy.
Saints hail the day that made us free—
From time unto eternity!

And, brothers, we will never bow
'Neath galling British chains again,
But freemen ever will remain,
A mighty nation still as now;
All celebrating while we may
This glorious Independence Day!

July 2, 1920 – 100 YEARS AGO
Rockland News

SADIE SUMMERS COLLAPSED AS CASE WAS BEING TRIED — JURY WAS WITHDRAWN AND CASE GOES TO OCTOBER TERM
Nyack Woman is Charged With Kidnapping Ten-Year-Old Sarah Caglione Four Weeks Ago
[Image: Sarah Caglione, clipped from the New York Daily News, June, 1920
       Sadie Summers Whalen of Nyack, on trial on a charge of kidnapping, collapsed in the County Court at New City, Wednesday, while the case was in progress.
       The jury was at once withdrawn, the case was declared a mistrial and Mrs. Whalen was committed to the county jail until the October term of the county court.
       A number of witnesses had been examined and Judge Patterson had appointed Dr. R. R. Felter of Pearl River and Dr. C.P. Hussey of Suffern to inquire into the mental condition of Mrs. Whalen before the case came to a sudden end.
       Whalen was placed on trial on the charge of kidnapping before Judge Patterson and a jury in the Rockland County Court Tuesday afternoon.
       She was charged with kidnapping Sarah Caglione of Nyack two weeks ago. Mr. and Mrs. Steve Caglione had been before Justice Haas in Nyack charged with ill-treating their children. A few days later, Mrs. Whalen called on them and represented that she was a sister of Justice Haas and a court officer. She said she had come to take the child to an institution and the parents let her take the little girl. She demanded $6, which they paid her. She said $5 was for the Justice and $1 for herself.
       Mrs. Whalen took the child to the hut of a man in the Ramapo Mountains, where it was found and Mrs. Whalen arrested.

June 24, 1970 – 50 YEARS AGO
The Journal News

DELLWOOD BURNS
       Fire destroyed the main building of the Dellwood Country Club at New City Wednesday night, several hours after the Clarkstown fire inspector had recommended installation of a sprinkler system there.
       Flames swept through the roof and the dining room, offices, large bar, and meeting rooms of the fieldstone club that for years was considered a symbol of the “good life” in Rockland.
       Clarkstown police said they were notified of the fire at 10:22 through an anonymous telephone call.
New City firemen, who were attending their monthly meeting, immediately rolled to the scene and found the flames already raging out of control. Mutual aid was summoned from Congers, Haverstraw and Thiells.
       Edwin Murdock, the town fire inspector, said at the scene he had been at the club during the day. He said he had proposed a sprinkler system then and during previous inspections. Located on Zukor Road and surrounded by an 18-hole golf course, the club was built originally by Adolph Zukor, the Paramount Movie mogul, in the ’20s. Zukor, who is now 97 and lives in California, used it as a residence and often as a location setting for the Silents. Much of the interior workmanship included wooden beams were last in the fire.
       In recent years, it had been a hub for the activities of Bernard Nemeroff, lawyer and realty promoter, who had leased the clubhouse to the membership. Nemeroff last night was reported to be in Florida.
       Employees living in quarters abutting the dining room were evacuated. Firemen said a fieldstone wall between the clubhouse and the quarters prevented further spread of the flames, which reached the patio adjacent to the bar and destroyed overhead canvas.
       Most of the club records in the office were lost and firemen said this was the last section where the flames were brought under control.
       Mrs. Vivian Stowbridge of New City, a member of the night staff, told police she had left for home at 9:30. She said there had been few members in the club and that work had been light.
       John Staub, the club manager, returned from his day off during the height of the fire. He said the club, whose individual memberships reportedly run as high as $3,000 yearly, had been booked heavily for the July 4 weekend.
       Several firemen were treated by the New City Ambulance Corps and the New City department’s first aid squad for smoke inhalation.
       Shortly after the alarm sounded, Congers firemen responded to a brush fire along Route 304 near the Clarkstown Shopping Center.
       In another fire discovered at 1:20 a.m. Thursday, the unoccupied Burns residence on North Main Street, Spring Valley, was destroyed. Spring Valley, Hillcrest and Monsey firemen responded to the alarm.
       An empty 29-room mansion on North Main Street in the center of Spring Valley, formerly owned by Herbert Burns, a local florist, was completely destroyed by a spectacular fire that burned for six hours Wednesday night. The three-story house and property had been recently sold to a New Jersey firm. Cause of the blaze is under investigation.
_____

This Week in Rockland (#FBF Flashback Friday) is prepared by Clare Sheridan on behalf of the Historical Society of Rockland County. To learn about the HSRC's mission, upcoming events or programs, visit www.RocklandHistory.org or call (845) 634-9629.

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