Week of January 17

January 16, 1875 – 150 YEARS AGO

Rockland County Journal

 AROUND HOME

  ☞  The funeral of John Ross, eldest son of Edwin Ross, of Nyack, was largely attended from the Reformed Church on Tuesday afternoon. The firemen attended in a body.

  ☞  Nyack is progressing—This week a married woman went off with some other woman’s husband, and a dead baby, the issue of two respectable(?) members of this community, was found in a sink.

  ☞  Let those people who are too lazy to clean the snow from their sidewalks remember that an accident resulting in injury to life or limb from this cause makes them responsible for the danger.

  ☞  A meeting of the officers of the Rockland Co. Agricultural Society will be held at the Fairview House, Spring Valley, on Wednesday 27th inst., at 1 o’clock P.M. A full attendance is requested.

  ☞  On Saturday last, while Minnie Storms, aged about eight years, was coasting in the vicinity of J. E. Smith’s shipyard, she was carried over an embankment, and her arm was broken and shoulder dislocated.

  ☞  Preaching in the Baptist Church tomorrow (Sunday) by the Pastor, at the usual hours. Morning subject: “Hope: An Incentive to Christian Action”; evening subject: “The Deficient Young Man.” All are welcome.

  ☞  The following gentlemen were recently elected directors of the Rockland Co. National Bank: D. J. Blauvelt, A. D. Morford, John W. Towt, I. M. Dederer, G. D. Blauvelt, Moses G. Leonard, I. S. Lydecker, N, C. Blauvelt, A. Seaman. D. J. Blauvelt, President, A. D. Morford, Cashier.

January 15, 1925 – 100 YEARS AGO

Pearl River News

KLAN ATTENDS NANUET CHURCH — Robed Visitors Contribute Freely in Aiding Work — St. Paul’s Church Scene of Unusual Activity Last Week as 100 Members Of Secret Order Arrive in Autos

[Image: St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Nanuet, c. 1907. Photo Courtesy of St. Paul’s Church.]

       As the evening services in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church were just beginning last Sunday night, one hundred members of the Ku Klux Klan, fifty in costume, quietly entered and, grouping themselves in the rear pews, listened attentively to the entire service.

       The pastor, the Rev. Carl Steffins, had chosen for his topic “The Invisible Church.”

       Following the regular church service, one man, apparently leader of the visiting group, walked to the pulpit [and gave] an address on 100 per cent Americanism, in which he put strong emphasis on the importance of the public school system.

       The group had no special donation prepared, but it is reported that all contributed liberally when the regular collection was made. All arrived at the church in automobiles, and drove away after the service.

CORNELIUS VANDERBILT SAWS WOOD FOR $2 A DAY AND WIFE WILL WASH - Valley Cottage Couple Are Close Relatives to Famous Millionaire Family — “Does Not Long for Riches but Is Satisfied to 'Work Each Day'”

       Cornelius Vanderbilt, famous resident of this section, has again broken into print. This time it is an article in Collier’s which brings Vanderbilt into prominence.

       Agnes Delima, writing in this week’s issue of The National Weekly, says: “Cornelius Vanderbilt will cut your wood, burn your brush, and tidy up your place for $2 a day! He will appear at your door at 7:30 A.M., scythe over his shoulder, ax in hand.

        “He’s Alfred Cornelius Vanderbilt, seventy-three years old, and he has lived in Valley Cottage, N.Y., a tiny hamlet in the back hills of the Hudson, all his days. The Vanderbilt “mansion” of Rockland County, a topsy-turvey structure of three small rooms, rents for $8 a month.

       Old Man Vanderbilt, as he is known to his neighbors, comes by his illustrious name honestly.

        “I’ll tell you about the relationship,” he will say to you. “My grandfather, my father’s father, that is, and old Commodore Vanderbilt were first cousins. He came from farming people like the sort of us—Dutch people we were—and he started his fortune with a rowboat. He used to row folks over from Staten Island to New York, which was the trading post. He saved his money, and bought a second-hand steam launch, and he didn’t stop till he had made hisself $90,000,000, which was quite a sum for those days.”

        “When I asked him if he didn’t wish some of this tidy sum had fallen to his side of the family too, Mr. Vanderbilt shook his head. “Oh, I guess there’s plenty of grandchildren,” he answered. “And I’m used to workin’. Ain’t never stopped since I was born.

        “Both he and his wife—Mrs. Vanderbilt is sixty-eight—have worked hard all their lives. Mrs. Vanderbilt for years has washed and ironed for summer boarders. She turns the most commonplace house into a thing of shining beauty. She herself, as she comes up the road, in her stiff white sunbonnet, blue calico dress, white apron, and broad, white newly starched handkerchief, looks like a dawning in an early edition of Shakespeare.”

January 15, 1975 – 50 YEARS AGO
The Journal News

BUS DRIVERS TAKE A TURN AT SCHOOL

       If you think Jackie Gleason is the model for the average bus driver, you’re a little out of touch with the times.

       At the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) driving course for school bus drivers at least half of the class are women, others are young students. They have been driving buses for months or years, but now they must take a course state mandated two years ago to make them even better drivers, according to teacher Randy McCormack.

       Kellie Goldsmith, 38, and Tari Conjura, 34, are best friends. They both live in Pearl River, both are married to policemen and both drive buses for extra money.

       Tari started three years ago. There were only two women in the force employed by the Coast Cities company then.

       Mrs. Goldsmith says she earns about $80 a week—after taxes—at a parttime job and says she likes it. She is a nurse by profession and wants to get back to nursing someday, but with two children at home, she says she needs the extra money.

       “My 14-vear-old is in the middle school and thinks it’s great,” she says of her children’s attitude toward her driving.

       There is some trouble with keeping the children in line on the bus, she says, but she and Mrs. Conjura both say they have become friendly with the children and have little difficulty now.

       McCormack says women now comprise about 60 percent of the bus drivers in Rockland and that they like the work because they are home with their children after school.

       The course, meeting eight nights during December and January, includes instruction in safety, dealing with children who become ill, auto insurance, the police and their relation to the driver

       There are no grades and the tests that are given to students do not endanger their licenses or their jobs.

This Week in Rockland (#FBF Flashback Friday) is prepared by Clare Sheridan for the Historical Society of Rockland County. © 2025 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.