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This Week in Rockland: Newspaper Excerpts: Flashback Friday: Week of July 19

2024-07-19 TWIR Image-Paul Giacobbe

July 18, 1874 – 150 YEARS AGO
Rockland County Journal

THE “CRIMSON MYSTERY” OF RAMAPO, AGAIN
       A rumor from several sources reaches us that in a pond about one quarter of a mile distant from the slimy cave in the Ramapo Mountains, over which such an intense excitement prevailed last winter, the body of a young man sewed up in a salt sack, was found last Saturday morning. Those who related the story to us, say that a young man named Strickland, who was insane, has been missing since the time of the excitement, and that the body found in the pond is supposed to be his; and parties have been paid to take him off because he was troublesome, and those who were interested in his welfare could not procure the means to pay for his keeping at an insane asylum. Whether or not there is the least foundation for such a rumor, we cannot say, but we give it to our readers as it came to us, and they can draw their own inferences in relation to the matter. If there is any truth in the report, a rigid investigation will be instituted, and all the facts elicited in due time.

AROUND HOME
   ☞ Now is the time, when people sleep with their doors and windows open, to pick out the champion snorer. We’ll wager ten cents on the one we heard while passing a house on DePew Avenue the other night.
   ☞ The fierce electrical storms of Friday and Saturday evenings were terrific in the vicinity of Nyack. The lightning struck at least half a dozen places near here, but fortunately little damage was done and no one hurt.
   ☞ If we were Billy Williams we would go for the first lightning-rod man that we could find, and then we would have our house bristling with copper conductors. To have one’s house struck twice in twenty-four hours is slightly “crowding the mourners.”

July 17, 1924 – 100 YEARS AGO
Pearl River News

KU KLUX KLAN COVERS TOWN OF ORANGETOWN WITH POSTERS ENTITLED “GOD GIVE US MEN”
       The Ku Klux Klan left its mark in Pearl River and the Town of Orangetown this week in the form of highly colored posters entitled “God Give Us Men.” Fully five thousand of the posters in behalf of the Invisible Empire were distributed Monday night and when the workmen and the commuters arose for their daily toil they found the evidence tacked on trees, telegraph poles, and buildings, and distributed at the doors of factories, stores, workshops and railroad stations.
       The circulars are printed on costly book paper and are done in red and black ink. By the side of the reading matter is the picture of a robust man in armor but without a shield. The appeal is printed with high-toned type and looks as though it might be a declaration of rights or a charter of some organization, but it isn’t. It reads:

“God Give Us Men”

       “The Invisible Empire demands strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands. Men whom the lust of office does not kill; men whom the spoils of office can not buy; men who possess opinions and a will; men who have honor; men who will not lie; men who can stand before a demagogue and dam his treacherous flatteries without winking! Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog in public duty and in private thinking.
       “For, while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds, their large professions and their little deeds mingle in selfish strife, lo! freedom weeps, wrong rules the land and waiting justice sleeps. God give us men! Men who serve not for selfish booty, but real men, courageous, who flinch not at duty—men of dependable character; men of sterling worth; then wrongs will be redressed and right will rule the earth. ‘God give us men.’”

       The poster is signed; “Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. For information address—P.O. Box 802, Buffalo, N.Y.; P.O. Box 769, Binghamton, N.Y.

July 18, 1974 – 50 YEARS AGO
The Journal News

GIACOBBE ASKS STATE TO OVERTURN ELECTION
[Image: Paul Giacobbe, 1974, photo from campaign ad from The Journal News.]
       Paul Giacobbe, who lost his Nyack School Board election bid by one vote, announced Wednesday that he has formally asked the state to overturn the election.
       Giacobbe’s petition to state education Commissioner Ewald Nyquist, said the election was conducted in a “careless, reckless, and negligent manner.”
       Giacobbe was defeated by Judith Martin in the five-way school board race.
       Giacobbe charges that persons were permitted to vote at one of the polls during a period when one of the voting machines was open. This was at the Hilltop Elementary School, where it was discovered after the poll opened that Mrs. Martin’s name did not appear on the machine.
       Giacobbe also alleges that the sample ballots distributed weren’t in conformity with the voting machine and that the samples distributed in the afternoon were different from those given out in the morning.
       He further alleges that voting in at least one instance was permitted after the polls had closed. An affidavit by George Nugent, one of the unsuccessful candidates in the five-way race, states that a man sought admission at the Valley Cottage poll after 9 p.m., saying he thought closing time was 10 p.m. Although it was 9:02 p.m., he was permitted to vote, the affidavit states.

200 SHARES OF STOCK LOST
       A Nanuet man lost $8,000 worth of Squibb Corp. stock when he left his briefcase on the roof of his car while driving through downtown White Plains, police say.
       The briefcase contained 200 shares of stock. The man reported that he was parked at the intersection of North Broadway and Lake Street Tuesday afternoon when he inadvertently left the case on the car roof.
       He said he had driven three blocks when a man who saw the briefcase fall off the car motioned to him to stop. He returned to the spot where the man said he had seen it fall, but the briefcase was gone. He said he believed children may have picked it up.
       Although he is advertising for its return, the briefcase had not been returned as of Wednesday night, he 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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