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This Week in Rockland: Newspaper Excerpts: Flashback Friday: Week of November 11

November 9, 1872 – 150 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal

AROUND HOME
     ☞ Charley Harr is now bowing and scraping under one of Puff’s best silk hats, which came to him through an error of judgment on the part of John P. Taylor.
     ☞ The Republicans and Grant clubs of our county are cordially invited to be present at the grand torchlight procession and illumination next Tuesday night.
     ☞ Owing to the large number of sick horses in this vicinity, several of our business men are compelled to deliver goods in wheelbarrows and wagons drawn by man power.
     ☞ Those of our citizens who intend to illuminate next Tuesday evening will do well to not depend on the gas-works for a supply of material; there might be another “accident.”

November 9, 1932 – 90 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal-News

DEMOCRATS IN JOYOUS MARCH — CELEBRATE VICTORY BY PARADES IN NYACK AND HAVERSTRAW
[Image: Fred R. Horn, from the permanent collection of the HSRC. Image appeared in The Tappan Zee Bridge and Forging the Rockland Suburb.]
       Scores of Nyackers stood at the curb at nine o’clock in the evening to watch Assemblyman Fred Horn lead his victory motorcade through the village streets and thence out to other sections of the county. The Assemblyman rode in state with friends in the leading auto, bowing and raising his hat in answer to enthusiastic, if disorganized, cheers.
       The lineup of automobiles extended several blocks as it swung past the Democratic Club headquarters on Main street, where 25 or 30 party workers and other Democrats lined the street at close quarters. Each car was equipped with “fog horns” and strong voices and nothing was spared to make known to the villagers the general glee at the news of Horn’s victory.
       A large Democratic parade formed at headquarters in Nyack at 9:30 with a couple of crowded trucks and the Hudson View Fife and Drum Corps heading a long line of loaded automobiles. Several aerial bombs were fired, and red and green flares were displayed by many in the crowd. A large picture of Roosevelt was carried on one of the trucks, towering above the crowd.
       The Democratic victory parade swept into Haverstraw with the sky as the limit. When the press of celebrators had passed, Paul Medar, of 83 Front street, Nyack missed his car and Lt. Lawrence Manion of the Haverstraw police issued an alarm to other county police. The marching is a 1931 Willys-Knight sedan, black, with a red stripe. The right rear fender is said to be damaged. Police believe it possible that a tipsy parader drove the car away by mistake.
       Haverstraw, which had been experiencing one of the quietest presidential election days in years, was suddenly awakened when the long lines of rooting tooting cars landed in the village. Bombs were bursting in air when the parade hit town and doubled up on Main street with Horn’s car in the van.

FARLEY SAID TO BE SLATED FOR CABINET — REPORTED IN POLITICAL CIRCLES TO BE CHOICE OF PRESIDENT-ELECT FOR POSTMASTER-GENERAL
       James A. Farley, National Democratic Chairman, will be invited by Governor Roosevelt to become Postmaster General, it was said in political circles last night. Friends of the Democratic chieftain said, however, that he probably does not want a post in the cabinet.
       Politicians also predicted that Owen D. Young will be Secretary of the Treasury and Newton D. Baker will be offered the post of Secretary of State. Former Governor Smith is also slated for appointment.
       They also forecast that Ogden L. Mills, Secretary of the Treasury, will be a candidate for President in 1936.
       While rumors had it that Melvin A. Taylor, Chicago banker, was slated for Secretary of the Treasure in the Roosevelt Cabinet, party leaders are bitter at him and will oppose his selection for any place, because he did not help in the campaign. He was the only one who sought the nomination for President who did not help, they assert.

November 8, 1972 – 50 YEARS AGO
The Journal News

COUNTY GOP DELIGHTS IN THEIR VICTORY …
       County Republicans reacted with a slight aloofness as television returns showed President Nixon sweeping to a landslide victory Tuesday night.
       At their headquarters in the Sheraton Motor Inn, Nanuet, the smartly dressed crowd demonstrated much more enthusiasm as local results showed county Republicans headed for almost a clean sweep.
       The national results seemed almost a foregone conclusion as they were monitored on two specially installed color television sets in the grand ballroom.
       And despite the overwhelming victory, there was little quarter for the campaign of Sen. George McGovern.
       “He’ll be a sore loser,” exclaimed one viewer minutes before McGovern appeared on the screen to make his concession speech.
       “Why don’t you take a trip to Hanoi now, George?” one woman called out after it was over.
       Another Republican woman exulted over the defeat of Maine Sen. Margaret Chase Smith. “She was a turncoat. They’re worse than the opposition,” she said, explaining her view.
       On the other hand, President Nixon’s acceptance speech drew only a few extra viewers in front of the television sets as most of the attention focused on local performances.
       “This was strictly an organizational victory,” declared county chairman Carmine Freda after seeing the trend of the results. “It was a matter of every worker doing the job in his election district.”
       “This election proves that people only want change when it is necessary,” he added. “We have stopped the course of revolutionary change.”
       Dr. Freda also said the results showed that “the Republicans can win without the Conservative party.
       “Generally speaking, the Republican party has been moving to the right of center,” he admitted. “But we are much further apart from the Conservative part[y] in Rockland than the party is at the state level.”
       He said that a few “exceptionally outspoken” Conservative leaders made it difficult for a reconciliation between the two parties in Rockland.
       But if the evening belonged to anyone, it was the individual precinct worker pouring over his or her district and anxiously watching the results of weeks of time spent knocking on doors and making telephone calls.
       “That’s my district,” said one woman, pointing proudly to the results of a ward in Central Nyack. The predominantly black district, with a 3-to-1 majority in Democratic registration, had given a majority vote to President Nixon and had held up substantially for Republican candidates in all the other races.
       “I can remember way back in the primary when this was all beginning,” said another woman. “It’s like it’s been growing inside us all this time, and now it’s finally here. Our baby has arrived.”
       And Mrs. Margaret “Marty” Moran, who somehow managed to preside over and direct the district-by-district vote tabulation throughout the whole evening, was finally reduced to saying, “We swept it all, we swept it all,” each time the phone had to be answered and then quickly hanging up again.
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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. To learn about the HSRC’s mission, upcoming events or programs, visit www.RocklandHistory.org or call (845) 634-9629.

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