Murder on West Main St.

In the middle 1800s, communicants of the Catholic Church in Hoosick Falls arrived each Fourth of July in Cambridge by train for a picnic. Where Cambridge Central School is today was a great stand of virgin pines, the last remnant of the forest of such giants which at one time dominated the Cambridge Valley. Grove St. took its name from the fact that when that lane was opened, it led into the heart of Cambridge Grove.

For many years these magnificent specimens defied the woodsman's axe because the owner made more money renting the grounds for picnics.

But finally, the lure of instant money overcame the last owner’s sense of obligation to the community. He cut the magnificent pines and sold them for ships masts. Somewhere in the community archives is an image of the last of these giants sprawled across multiple rail cars, ready for shipment to the coast.

The grove was known to each succeeding generation by the current owner's name. The owner in 1865, the year of our story, was Baker; hence, the Hoosick Falls congregation had come via the new Eagle Bridge and Rutland Railroad to picnic in Baker's Grove.

NO IRISH NEEDED

It was just at the close of the Civil War. Racial tensions ran high in the Northern states, just as they did in the South. One of the great waves of immigration which helped the North field armies superior in number was the Irish. They fought for the Union, but were largely unloved by the Anglos.

They were largely Catholic, which provided further basis for the discrimination the Irish faced, as the Anglos, especially in the Cambridge Valley, were almost exclusively Protestant. It is of course ironic that today many of the leading families of the community are of this same Irish Catholic stock.

It was following the July Fourth picnic, 1865, that an event transpired in Cambridge to cement those prejudices for several succeeding generations. The account appeared in the Old Washington County Post, then edited by a flamboyant anglophile named Rufus King Crocker. During the recent war, Crocker had joined the new Republican party and had done as much as any other person in the Cambridge community to fill the local quotas with volunteer soldiers.

However, immediately prior to the war he had been a leading "Know Nothing" of the American Party, which opposed the integration of Blacks into society and the immigration of Catholics, especially Irish Catholics.

Obviously, Crocker had championed a united nation for other than racial reasons. What he appeared never to accept was the vital contribution of Irish and German immigrants to the Union’s ultimate success. We couldn’t have done it without them. This account then should be considered as coming from a source decidedly less than objective!

In his July 7th edition of the WCP, Editor Crocker reported "One of the most brutal and inhuman conflicts ever to take place in our usually quiet village". It had, he wrote, occurred in broad daylight "before 500 witnesses who did nothing to prevent it".

It seems that about 6:30 on the evening of July 4th, 1865, following a day-long picnic at Baker's Grove, the communicants of the Hoosick Falls Catholic Church made their way to the depot in the middle of the Village, their object being to catch the "down" train that evening and return to their homes.

COMMUNITY DIVIDED

It would have been an easy trek in 1865, as there was little development at that time between the Grove and Main Street. Where Avenues A and B are today was the northern edge of the grove and a farm owned by John Putnam, grandson of the Revolutionary War hero, Israel Putnam. There were no Seed House grounds, no Union School and no Library. There was, instead, a vast millpond, which powered Blakeley’s Mill, just east of South Union St. With much sewage from West Main dumping into it, as well as the offal dumped from two tanneries and several slaughterhouses, summer heat turned the pond into a miasma of stench and rot.

Cambridge was soon to become an incorporated village. But in 1865, it was actually four distinct communities, each separated by the topography of the region. Stephenson’s Corners, later to be named Coila, was a thriving little community on a main-traveled road. It had its own professionals, its separate Presbyterian Church, its own post office and one room school. At the intersection of Union and Main Streets was Cambridge Corners. It sat upon a substantial knoll --- later greatly reduced --- that forced heavy, team-drawn commerce to turn south down the valley at the intersection at the Cambridge Washington Academy. For the same reason, considerable traffic on the Great Northern Turnpike would veer off on the shun-pikes and pass down a section of what would become Park St. That intersection, of Park and Main, was known as North White Creek. It featured yet another Presbyterian Church, an ancient brick hotel (where Cumberland Farms was in 2006) known at the time as The Irving House. Across the street was Porter’s Tavern, even older and the seat of much fomentation during the years just prior to the American Revolution. The only building remaining from this period is what was in 2006 Alexander’s Hardware; although at the time of the story, it was a clothing and mercantile enterprise. There was some development on the north side of Main St., but little at the time on the south side. The building by the tracks recently housing an Agway business was there. Martin and John Hubbard ran a lumberyard there. The block west of the lumberyard, on both sides of Main St., had a cluster of businesses.

DORR’S CORNERS

Farther east beyond the Park and Main intersection was Dorr’s Corners, named for a family that provided a doctor for a couple of generations; although the last of the Dorr doctors fell from local favor, thanks to a charge of grave-robbing, which was substantiated to the satisfaction of the law in those times.

Between Dorr’s Corners and North White Creek were clustered a loosely constructed mix of private and commercial buildings, many of which had been recently destroyed in a fire, reputedly sparked by a blacksmith’s forge. The entire block burned off because the community had nothing in the way of fire apparatus, other than the obligatory “bucket brigade”. Salem, on the other hand, had already acquired a handsome hand pumper, which they were more than willing to load on a flatcar and haul by rail to Cambridge to show off. But by the time it arrived, there was nothing left to save.

North White Creek and Cambridge Corners were separated by a swamp that extended well north of Blakeley’s Mill Pond. It was sometimes possible to travel by wagon from one community to the other without bogging down, but only in times of near drought.

It took far-seeing community business leaders --- primarily Martin Hubbard, Jerome B. Rice and John S. Smart --- to see the wisdom in building the two communities together. They began the long, costly process by filling the swamp (much of it earth taken to reduce the knoll at Cambridge Corners) and building on the fill.

So after a day of picnicking in the Grove, a party of Irish Catholics from St. Mary’s Parish, Hoosick Falls, hiked up the tracks to the recently constructed depot, where they would take the down train home.

But somehow they were drawn further west of the depot to Cambridge Corners. It is not likely that they were drawn there by Fenton’s Tavern, where years later the Union House would rise. Irish were decidedly unwelcome at this hangout of such lofty citizens as the Fentons, the Chases, the Longs of the Checkered House community, and others of their horsey set.

BASEMENT SALOONS

Across North Park was an oyster house. No Irish welcome there, either.

But having indulged beyond the veil of propriety and being in extreme high spirits, perhaps they sought to pass the intervening hour before the train arrived by fetching up at one of the numerous basement saloons which scarred the Main Street of that day; and which were heavily dependent upon Irish and Italian laborers to purchase and consume their home-made rot-gut.

In 1865, Cambridge Corners was a substantial hamlet. Storehouses clustered around the intersection. A few yards west of hill (where the West End Market is today) was a huge steam mill, recently completed by a couple of the Village's leading capitalists. Across the brook west of the mill was a large carriage manufactory. Across the street by the brook, the hardware store was likely closed, but Nick Jenkins might have been working late in his harness shop. Perhaps he heard the ruckus and was one of those who stepped out on the boardwalk to observe the drunken Irishmen (and Irishwoman) "…become engaged in a conflict of words".

However, words were soon followed by blows. Perhaps egged on by the crowd that poured out of the adjacent saloons and tavern, a general fight ensued.

The Murder of Thomas Cornellie

So vigorous was the bout on West Main St. that July 4^th, 1865, that, while it proved highly entertaining to the spectators, it beggared the descriptive powers of Editor Crocker, a former English teacher at the Albany Academy for Boys.

Clubs were freely used, stated Crocker. "Stones and missiles of every description came flying through the air in a very careless and dangerous manner." One wonders if some of those missiles might have come from the crowd of Cambridge natives that had gathered to enjoy the skirmish. At any rate, Crocker reported that “this resulted in many bloody and disfigured countenances and black eyes….”

It should be noted that the Irish were fighting amongst themselves there in the street, not with the resident Anglos gathered on the boardwalks. Quite likely the Protesters thought (if, indeed, they were not at that late afternoon time on the Nation’s number one holiday for unbridled celebration, beyond thought) that the brouhaha was of no business to them.

AFFRONT TO DECENCY

But to some of the bystanders, it was, onsidered an affront to common decency. Thundered Crocker, "This disgraceful conflict was allowed to rage on unmolested for at least 30 minutes..., our citizens adopting the policy of 'neutrality’ and preferring not to interfere...”

...until the arrival of Officer McClellan, the town constable. McClellan had been out of town on business, a practice that became more or less SOP (standard operating procedure) for future constables when the Catholics arrived at the Grove from Hoosick Falls on July 4th.

McClellan arrived after the picnic, but in time for the brawl, where, before his fellow citizens, he was obligated to arrest the drunken Irish. Which he did. He collared the ringleaders --- Michael Loftis, Miles and James Malony and Thomas Welch. They were taken before Justice Martin and fined $10-$15 each.

Of course, in order for the charges to stick, witnesses were required. One by one, the Anglo crowd melted back into the booze halls, leaving only Thomas Cornellie, apparently a resident of Stephenson’s Corners, to testify.

It took Justice Martin less than an hour to hear Cornellie’s testimony, and that of Officer McClellan and mete out the fines, which were substantial, considering that if the men involved were typical laborers of the day, they did it for roughly $1 per week.

About an hour after the brouhaha and the arrest, Cornellie was making his way home past the scene of the fight. It was presumed that, having been fined and delayed to the point of missing the "down" train, the Irish had "taken leg bail" down the tracks toward Hoosick Falls.

But as Cornellie crossed the bridge at the steam mill, he was suddenly set upon by a crowd that had been lurking in the deepening shadows of the three-story mill. It was a family affair, led by the Malony brothers, Miles and James, their sister, Mary, and a cousin, Thomas Welch.

In the deepening twilight they clubbed the witness to his knees and then proceeded to pound and kick him, as he lay helpless in the street. Finally, as witnesses again crowded the boardwalk, the four left off their vengeful beating and fled south down the valley.

When it was safe, solicitous towns-folk, who had done nothing to stop the bloody beating, scooped up the mortally wounded Cornellie, dumped him into a Fenton House buckboard and delivered him to William Stevenson, a venerable homeopathic doctor then practicing in Coila.

CORNELLIE DIES

Cornellie died at 2 a.m. that next morning. In the wee hours, Coroner Skinner empanelled a jury and the inquest commenced. Drs. William and son George Stevenson, who was also a doctor and who had participated in the examination of the body, testified that death resulted from a fractured skull and cerebral hemorrhaging. The Irish had beaten Cornellie's brains out, apparently with one of the large stones used to fill bogs in the swampy street.

A string of witnesses, now all eager to discuss the case, kept the inquest in session until the evening of July 5 and well into July 6.

Finally, the verdict of murder was brought. With the benefit of modern rail transportation, word of the foul deed reached Hoosick Falls almost immediately and the accused four were quickly placed under arrest.

It was a sensational time in Old Cambridge. Local Civil War regiments were just returning from the Great War. The population wanted to celebrate the arrival of the 93rd Regt. Editor Crocker, whose cousin John Crocker had recruited and commanded the 93^rd, could only find room for a follow-up report on the murder in the July 14th edition, on page three, where the local news appeared.

Crocker called for "Prompt decision and positive action... to redeem our Village from the foul stain most wantonly and needlessly cast upon its fame.

"As a public journalist," he continued, "We owe it to ourself and to the community in which we live to raise our voice... and sound the alarm... before the lawless and ignorant and depraved multitude who swarm our streets on such occasions... shall have converted our once peaceful Village into a den of thieves, drunkards and murderers."

He was sounding more and more like the "Know Nothing" politico of pre-Civil War days, rather than the liberal Republican most of his readers had come to think him. Crocker called for prompt and efficient means of controlling the population. To his credit, he did not advocate sending all Irish and Catholics back to where they came from.

But he did call for the incorporation of the Village of Cambridge, with a strong police force and a sturdy lock-up---things he lived to see accomplished.

He wanted "…municipal regulations. We need a police force and a lock-up for drunkards. This is nothing new. It is only what every similar Village in the State already has!"

Meanwhile, Officer McClellan took the four accused Irish to the county jail in Salem, where they were held until trial.

That October in County Court, for his role in the beating death of Thomas Cornellie, Thomas Welch was sentenced to two years in State prison. Miles Malony received a one-year sentence. James Malony (evidently a minor) was sentenced to the House of Refuge. The sentence of Mary Malony was suspended.

In April 1866 --- the year North White Creek, Dorr’s Corners and Cambridge Corners would be incorporated into a single municipality --- the peace of the hamlet of Coila was shattered by three drunken Irishmen, who assaulted a one-legged Civil War veteran. The veteran proved plenty competent to defend himself. One of the assailants "was speedily demoralized and retired, averring that his cousin (Thomas Cornellie) who was killed last 4th of July didn't lose half as much blood".

OF STERNER STUFF

It seemed they had wandered down the lane from the saloons of Cambridge Corners, before setting upon the Vet. But they found the citizens of Stephenson’s Corners made of sterner stuff. This time, a citizen interfered and put a stop to it and the parties were arrested.

Patrick McGue was fined $l0. Thomas Connolly was admonished and bound over to the law. Even the Vet did not escape the lengthening grasp of the law. He was forced to give bail for the shellacking he put on Mark Cummings, one of the attackers.

That May 1866, the same issue that published the list of the first public officials elected in the newly incorporated Village of Cambridge, carried the notice of a petition of clemency for Thomas Welch and Miles Malony, then serving their time for manslaughter.

By then the Old Washington County Post had a new proprietor, James S. Smart, future U.S. Congressman and former artillery Capt. in the Civil War. Crocker, who had sold out to him, went on to serve many years as the stern Village Police Judge. But Smart and Crocker saw eye to eye on justice.

Smart noted that there was a petition making the rounds in the Village that would ask Gov. Fenton to pardon Welch and Malony. "Don't let those men (signers) stand in pulpit and bar proclaiming law and order," he thundered.

"Those who have the most to say about vindicating the majesty of the law, preserving order in the Village and the suppression of public disturbances are the first to sign the paper.

"A man is killed in a street row in broad daylight, a mild one and two year sentence is passed out, and six months later clergy, elders, leading merchants and Christian gentlemen are asking for their release.

Then, reaching into his well stocked knapsack for venom, Smart concluded: "By all means, open the prison door; let murder unprovoked stalk through our streets." The petition died from a lack of signatures.

Two decades would pass before the Hoosick Falls Catholic Church would resume the Fourth of July picnics at what was by then known as Crocker's Grove, having been purchased by brothers B.P. and R. K. Two decades in the life of Cambridge as an incorporated village. And two decades under the hawkish scrutiny of Editor John Stephenson Smart and Police Judge Rufus King Crocker.

It was the Christmas Season, a time for Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward Men, as the good people of the Cambridge Valley prepared to celebrate the Birth of the Christ Child.

But like the sulfurous cloud that sometimes wafted from the Village dump during those wintry days of 1940, dark clouds of strife and catastrophe hung stubbornly on the horizon.

WAR LOOMS

To the East, Adolf Hitler's Nazi hordes scrambled the tiny countries of Europe like petulant children upsetting a jig-saw puzzle.

Our mother country, England, was sorely pressed and cried out for the succor of its powerful young offspring, the United States.

And to the West, bushido-coded Japan stood astride the Asian continent, its bloody sword stuck deeply into the heart of Pearl Buck's beloved China.

In November, the first volunteers left the Valley under the first peace-time Selective Service draft, a draft that would ultimately draw millions of young Americans into WW II.

WANTED! CHRISTMAS!

The adults of the Valley remembered the bloody massacre called The Great War, that in a few short weeks of battle had maimed and murdered their very best. Among them, there was no sentiment for involvement.

They wanted their young men to remain on the playing fields of Cambridge High School, and continue to reign as track champions.

That spring, the boys had repeated as Section II champs. The team---Fred Severson, Atwood Allen Jr., Ray Luke, Ervil Bentley, John Chapin, William Reynolds Jr., Malcolm Clark, Edward Cieszko, Albert Kent, Philip Baker, Robert Corie, William Hatch, Eldridge Rouse, Donald Austin, Charles Clark, Theodore Cieszko, and Robert Powers--- would, almost to the man, fight in WW II.

WINNING STREAK

They were equally proud of the basketball team, which opened play that December with a 34-29 win over Bennington. The team would run off 9 victories before a loss. Players were Frank Decker, John Ridler, Ray Luke, Al Kent, Bill Reynolds, Beaver Watkins, George McGeoch, Steve Ashton, John LeGrys.

At a time when teams averaged only 30 points a game, Ray Luke won the County scoring race with 123 pts. He was selected first team All County. Al Kent made the second squad. Kent, Luke and mates would also soon be in the uniform of their Country.

TO CELEBRATE

The anxious parents of the Cambridge Valley would, that Christmas, 1940, emulate the ostrich. For a few fleeting days, they would stick their heads in the sand. For the Holidays, at least, they were determined to celebrate, not fighting and bloodshed, but the Birth of Christ! They would elevate in their hearts the more glorious concepts of Peace and Love.

The Cambridge Lions Club took the lead in making the Village a festive place. Behind the leadership of Prexy Jerome E. Wright, they sponsored down-town decorations and a home decorating contest.

CENTERPIECE

The centerpiece of Village efforts quickly took shape on the lawn of the Rice Seed Co. It was a Christmas panorama of figures carved and painted for the occasion. In the center was a shed containing the Christ Child. Approaching it from the east were shepherds with their staffs, mounted on camels. From the west came the Magi colorfully dressed, bearing gifts. Over the crib shone the Star of Bethlehem.

The display was lighted at night. Nick Canzeri, with phonograph and loud speaker, provided an hour of holiday music each evening. The Lions Club put it together. The figures were cut at the McGhee planing mill. Later this would become Cambridge Lumber Co. William Watkins did the electrical work and Lyman White, manager of the Seed Co., donated the current. Mrs. John Franklin, who was in charge of the Christmas lighting contest, designed the figures and, after they were cut out, painted them.

WCP CELEBRATES

In mid-December, the old Washington County Post had its own, brief celebration. The December 12th issue was the WCP's 153rd anniversary. It was the oldest continuously active weekly newspaper in the United States.

Editor Charles John Stevenson wrote a "Splinters from the Post" humor column, in which he tweaked the noses (and funny bones) of the business leaders of the Valley. That week he announced that the owner of a goat herd on "Two Tops" Mountain in Ashgrove had painted their horns bright red, so Malcolm Parrish and Harry Greenway wouldn't shoot them for deer.

THE TATTLER

In each issue of the beloved local paper, a full page of school news appeared under the banner of "The Orange Tattler". It was edited and reported by the students. That Holiday season, The Tattler reported the weekly assembly. It opened with "The Lord's Prayer." Then the students sang a hymn. Byron Herrington was principal in 1940.

Joyce "Pinkie" Center drew a weekly cartoon. She would become Mrs. Jack Decker, one of hundreds of local "war brides", and later teach art to generations of post-war children.

Nine young volunteers for the draft left from Greenwich that first week in December.

The first local volunteer under the draft was Orley Lincoln of Shushan. Going from Cambridge were Travis Madison and Donald Brownell. Brownell would die in combat.

Paul Austin was a 2nd Lt. in the 26th infantry. He was one of several hundred Valley boys already in training. Paul would spend Christmas, 1940, at Fort Benning, Ga.

NOT TO FORGET

With war firmly upon the horizon and her only son in training to enter it, Mrs. Elsa Cornell Parrish, the wife of the local bank president, was determined that the Valley not forget its soldier boys.

In a column in the Old WCP, she reported on local soldiers.

Milton Keyes, son of the John Keyes of Gilmore Ave., was a cadet pilot attending advanced flying school at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas.

Purcell and Earl (Toby) Herrington, sons of the Irving Herringtons, were training as pilots. The three would be highly decorated survivors of the air war.

Donald Starbuck was a flying cadet at Albany, Ga. He would become an "ace" in the P-38, Lockheed Aircraft's twin-hulled "Lightning".

THE ACADEMIES

Several Valley boys were graduates of the service academies, and set for important roles in the coming conflict.

Capt. Frank Sherman Henry, only son of John Henry, who ran the famous double store under Hubbard Hall, was at Fort Riley, Ks. training new officers and riding on the national equestrian team. He would serve on Eisenhower's War Plans Staff. In 1948 he would set an equestrian record in the first Olympic games following WW II. Henry set himself apart from all of the other great athletes of the Cambridge Valley by winning two silvers and a gold medal in that 1948 Olympics. By the end of his career in the US Army, he was a general.

Capt. Sam Lansing, son of a former Cambridge postmaster, was stationed at Fort Ord, Cal. Lt. Commander Burton Lake, son of the John Lakes of White Creek, was serving on the staff of the Commander-in-chief of Submarines, Asiatic Waters, Manilla, the Philippines. By the end of his career in the US Navy, he would be an admiral.

The family of Col. and Mrs. Robert Rossiter Raymond (ret.) of West Main St. was well represented. Major Robert Raymond was at Fort Bragg, Capt. Charles was at Camp Custer. lst Lt. Richard Raymond was with the British Purchasing Agency in Brooklyn.

Lt. Amos Moscrip was at Fort Benning, Ga. with an anti-tank regiment. He would survive to write one of the best local history books there is.

DOCTOR'S SONS

Many sons of doctors at Mary McClellan Hospital, were already in line for major roles in WW II. Lt. J.G. Robert Holmes, son of Dr. and Mrs. Holmes, served aboard the USS Preble, stationed at Pearl Harbor. The other son, Sterling, was a 2nd Lt. in the Infantry. George Abbot, son of the late Dr. Abbott, had enlisted in the Marines the year previous and was in flying school. Lt. John Hampton, son in law of Mrs. Abbott, who would return to Cambridge after the war, was in the Air Corps. Gilbert Harmon, son of Rev. and Mrs. Harold Harmon, was in cadet flying school.

FIRST HERO

Hitchcock Robinson, son of the George Robinsons, was in the l05th Infantry. Freeman Robinson, his brother, would be the first to return as hero. He survived the sinking of his merchant ship by a Nazi U-boat in the North Atlantic. Freeman entered the US Navy, and after the war became an attorney.

He and his wife moved into Levittown when it had a population of 5,000. The next year the mushrooming population was closer to 55,000. He would be a lawyer in the right place at the right time, until he retired to Hedges Lake. From there, until his recent demise, “Phil” Robinson wrote an occasional folksy little column for The Eagle.

Ernest Graves, son of the Blythe Graves, was in the l05th Infantry. William Mullen, son of the Wm. Mullens, was in Honolulu with the llth Medical Regt. stationed at Schofield Barracks. Graeme "Tink" Parrish was completing his fourth year of infantry training in the Cornell Univ. ROTC program. Elsa's only son would be decorated with the Silver Star for valor in combat, receive two serious wounds, and survive them to return to the Cambridge Valley.

He would eventually buy and operate The Cambridge Lumber Co. He would also manage The Cambridge Band for many years. To crown an illustrious career, he undertook to lead the recent rehabilitation of The Cambridge Hotel.

DEVOTION TO DUTY

Lt. Donald Smith, son of the F.R. Smiths, was with the Medical Corps. Winfield Arnott, son of the James Arnotts, was a 2nd Lt. in the 26th Infantry. He would die in combat. Theodore Decker, son of the Clarence Deckers, had enlisted for two years of foreign service in the Medical Corps and was en route to Honolulu. His brother Franklin studied Diesels in the Maritime Service.

Gardner Cullinan, a corporal of the Vermont National Guard, was managing the Empire Market in Bennington. He went to war when the Guard was called up. He would move quickly through the ranks, fighting across Europe as a Capt. in Intelligence. After the war he would return to the Valley, buy the Old WCP and edit and manage it many years. He would also be Mayor of the Village and Supervisor of White Creek, as well as Supt. of Mary McClellan Hospital, during its time of greatest growth.

Richard Wilson, whose grandfather was the "Wilson" in Mason and Wilson's West End Drug Store, had already enlisted in the radio branch of the US Navy. He would survive the kamikaze raids over Okinawa and stay for a career in the Navy. But finally he would return to the Cambridge Valley to write of its history and to regale a modern generation of school children with stories of his youth in The Valley.

Christmas 1940 (Part II)

Even though the parents dreaded it, and despite their determination to celebrate the Christmas Season, Elsa Parrish's column made it clear that, one year before the infamous sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, Old Cambridge had already gone to war.

Local businesses were quick to join the anxious parents in getting into the spirit of the season.

Deficit spending to finance WW II had not yet set off the inflation we have waded in since. A dollar was still worth a dollar, to those that had one. The mill was still a coin of the Realm; prices often listed half-cent intervals.

The Cambridge Theatre offered a change of pace from caroling and pageantry. For a few cents, the small fry could thrill to the heroics of the fighting troubadour Roy Rogers, who starred with Ann Miller in "Melody Ranch". Sophisticated oldsters might prefer the comedy featuring Lum and Abner. Other stars that week were Walter Pidgeon, Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall.

Charles R. Clark's chiropractic services could ease the stress of shopping.

Local Business

LeGrys Drug Store, 90 years “young” that Christmas, advertised repairs for fountain pens that leaked. Walt Dunbar's "turkey ranch" was the place to go for a plump, fresh, holiday bird. Hastings Bros offered dressed, Dunbar birds at 30 cents per lb.

Wilson and Mason's West End Drug Store offered boxed candies for 35 cents. J.E. Skellie's dry goods store on West Main offered pullover sweaters for $1.49. Hose cost the ladies 35 cents a pair; ties cost the men 35 cents to $1.

Rail passenger service was no longer available to bring in country customers to nearby city stores, but the affluent owned private passenger cars. For the rest, every garage and gas station offered a cheap taxi service (25c minimum), and there were regular passenger bus runs to nearby cities.

Like many locals, O.K. Spurr kept his big furniture and appliance store open evenings during the season. On the East End, Jimmy Estramonte's ice cream and confectionery shop offered Christmas candy and Sealtest raspberry ice cream pie.

In the Candy Shop, the first building west of The Cambridge Hotel, one could purchase freshly made “ribbon” hard candy. Between the Candy Shop and the Rice Mansion was the Post Office.

Valley consumers had several grocery stores to shop, for Christmas 1940. Walter "Sandy" Moore's Schaffer Store on East Main offered three cans of sauerkraut 25c, aged cheese 29c a lb. and four lb. red grapes 25c.

Santerre's five cent and $1 store on East Main offered a wide selection of toys and games, and was also the Village drop point for Sno White Laundry.

On West Main, Bell and Costello's used car clearance featured two 1939 Studebaker Commanders and a '34 Chevrolet Business Coupe, Master Deluxe.

"FLASH!

Just before Christmas, Bob McWhorter ran one of his patented ads on page four of the WCP:

“A gentleman whom you all know was in our food emporium and said to us (quote) "Your Sausage is the Best I have eaten since the days when my grandparents used to make their own" (unquote) and he should know, for he's been eating sausage for quite a few years. OUR price? only 20c. Yes, fresh hams for whole or half are only 19c and pork steaks are only 20c. Pork Roasts, nice and lean, 17c. Did ya ever see a boned chicken? Well you come.... Oh, I could write a book, but Charlie wouldn't print it and I couldn't pay for it if he did. Come in and see what we have. We enjoy crowds.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

John Henry's double store (beneath Hubbard Hall) offered a variety of clothing and household items, as well as "staple groceries".

Randles Service Station and Frank Higgins' Hardware (Alexander's in 2006) bought Christmas ads that week. The A&P offered 2 lb. bags of freshly ground coffee for 33c. Cranberry sauce and mincemeat were 11c the can.

The Cambridge Valley National Bank urged customers to join its "Christmas Club", where by putting aside 25 cents a week one would have $12.50 to spend by Christmas, 1941.

As has always been the custom in the Cambridge Valley, the churches took the lead in celebrating Christmas, 1940. Every congregation had its own special observances, its decorations and its youth programs. St. Luke's Church scheduled "even songs" in its advent series, with a pageant on the 5th Sunday in December. Miss Caroline Raymond was in charge. The ladies of St. Patrick's Parish held a food sale fund-raiser. The ladies of the Eagle Bridge Methodist Church held their Christmas Party in the home of Mrs. E.W. Chase.

There were many family entertainments that season. The Franklin McLenithans entertained a party of the young friends of their children. Evelyn Burton's "Neighborhood News" column announced that Mr. and Mrs. George Wilkie entertained at a family dinner party at their home on Division St.

Locals on the Air

Radio was relatively new in 1940, and was a major source of entertainment. WCP Editor Charles John Stevenson was quick to grasp this, and even quicker to exploit it. By Christmas, 1940, Editor Stevenson was already making his mark on regional radio. Station WTRY carried him weekly for 15 minutes.

But on Christmas Eve, Charles John presented a full half hour. Featured were four Cambridge vocalists: a trio composed of Elizabeth Parrish, Frances Whitcomb and Evalyn Holden, with Mrs. A.H. Stein, a popular local soprano. During the War, Editor Stevenson's broadcast career would soar. He would put both the Cambridge Valley and himself "on the map", via his popular programs.

The Men's Recreation Club began winter meetings that month. Coach Leroy Hinchcliffe was in charge. The men met in the Union School basement gym and played volleyball, aerial darts and deck tennis.

The Salvation Army started a "Dollar Tag Day" drive. The Army maintained a $50 fund in Cambridge to provide meal tickets to the few needy transients who still bummed around following the Depression. Welfare Commissioners Charles Case for White Creek and Ernest Brownell for Cambridge announced that the CCC camp at Bolton Landing had room for a few more boys, ages 17 through 23.

The Lions meeting at The Cambridge Hotel the week before the Holiday turned into a Christmas party, with George Brewer as Santa Claus.

The Cambridge Valley had a genuine Country Club in those days. Normally, The Glen Eagle on King Rd. would have played largely in any holiday doings. After the golf course closed, winter sports took over. There was a skating pond, a toboggan run and slopes groomed for skiing. Best of all, the barn had been out-fitted as a clubhouse, with a dance floor and huge wood stove for warmth.

But the winter of 1940-41 proved too unreliable, and little in the way of Christmas festivities was reported.

CHRISTMAS COMES TO THE VALLEY

Christmas week, 1940, was ushered in by two earthquakes, each strong enough to shake pickle jars from the grocer's shelves and old maids from their slumbers. Christmas day dawned freezing cold, but by noon the temperature was a balmy 50.

In those days of unchecked infantile paralysis, Mary McClellan Hospital had a busy orthopedic wing for children. Santa Claus did not overlook them.

The Child Health and Welfare Committee planned a tree and party for the 30 kids. Mrs. Lyman White was chairman. Serving with her were Mesdames Leroy Hinchcliffe (pianist), Robert Hamilton Scott and George Robertson; with help from the Misses Hazel Moffitt, Mary Parrish, Esther Fortuine and Edythe Behr. Also on hand were Lawrence Hixon and Clarence Coulter. The party began with the singing of Christmas carols, led by George Brewer. Dr. Frank Maxon showed two motion pictures, "Bronco Busters" and a cartoon. Miss Nancy Hinchcliffe donned a drum major costume and did a military tap dance. Santa, who bore more than a passing resemblance to Carleton Smith, arrived during the singing of "Jingle Bells", to distribute gifts from beneath the big Tree.

The grand prize in the Lions Christmas lighting contest that Christmas, 1940, went to Marjorie Gifford, for decorating her Avenue B home. In that last, great extravaganza before WW II, twenty-one proud Village homeowners entered theirs in the contest. Fourteen of the efforts were adjudged outstanding. Second prize went to the Albert Motsiff home on North Park St. and third to Miss Ruth McCarty, who lighted the family home on Academy St.

On the horizon loomed black-outs, air raid warnings, gas rationing, and the horror of all-out, Total War. But in the Christmas of 1940, the people of The Cambridge Valley had managed, for a few precious days, to promote Peace and Love in a sadly troubled World.

Otto Meinhardt & The Heart-Break Hotel

In January, 1926, Jimmy LeGrys purchased Frank Richardson’s drug store. Richardson had to give up being mayor of Cambridge in order to take a state level appointment as its first Commissioner of Pharmacy.

The Standard Oil Co. announced that it had rented the remainder of the Union House corner and would put up a station. It did, and the station operated for many years. But since there was more “through” traffic on Park St., it eventually gave way to the current (2006) used vehicle lot.

Then in late January, Otto Meinhardt announced grandiose plans of organizing and running the Home Comfort Hotel Corp. The centerpiece would be his Hotel Cambridge. A local man, Max Carpenter, was hired as director of the scheme.

The Corp. also took over the Hamilton House, Greenwich. Initial dreams were of a $250,000 hotel to be constructed in Granville.

In the meantime, Hotel Cambridge was to get a new front porch. The grillroom was to become a ladies parlor, to shield them from the coarse, male element. The foyer would be enlarged. A large banquet room and dance hall were to be added to the rear where the American Legion then occupied rooms. The Legion was already looking for a building to purchase.

CENTRAL SERVICES

To cut overhead and boost potential profits, the three hotels were to have a central bakeshop, butcher shop, laundry and refrigeration unit. Laundry would be collected by automobile and delivered to the central facility.

Mr. Meinhardt was to be in charge of the dining service for the three hotels.

He was not without “bona fides”. Before coming to Cambridge, Meinhardt had been dining room manager for Brown's Chop House in the Hotel Astor, NYC, and the Montclair House in New Jersey.

Another raid in Hoosick Falls in late January uncovered a brewery and two 40-gallon stills going full blast in a Village basement. Confiscated and destroyed by the Federal raiders were 100 gal. of alcohol and low-grade whiskey. In a garage at the rear of the property was found a barrel of molasses and all ingredients for the making of home brew. Stanley Wirmusky and Patrick McGraw were arrested. The place was on Lyman St.

That March the Grange Hall was renovated. This building had been the “2^nd” Presbyterian Church to be built at the Park and Main intersection. For many years before its serious damage by fire, it served as a primary dance hall. Until the Mary Hubbard bequest, it was where Cambridge played its basketball games. Drawbacks were the close seating of the spectators and the roof support beams, which interdicted the court.

GOES PUBLIC

And in March, the Home Comfort Hotel Corp. went public, seeking investors. Their slogan: "We are ready; watch us grow!"

Corporation officers were Frank S. Fogg, secretary and treasurer; W.D. Horstmann, president and general manager; and Fred C. Corl, assistant to the president. Otto Meinhardt, who was listed as the “former” owner of the Cambridge Hotel, became an assistant to the president.

All of the leadership was from “out of town”. Fogg was secretary and manager of the American Pea Green Slate Co. of Granville. Horstmann had 35 years in the hotel business. He was from Syracuse, where he and owned and operated the Yates Hotel.

John Schmoll was a company director. He was supt. of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in Saratoga Springs.

Not surprisingly, Cambridge came to be the corporate headquarters. A prospectus to lure investors appeared in the WCP. It included the planned redesign of the Hotel Cambridge.

Now it was time to bring Carpenter, the local man, into play to sell the enterprise to local investors.

MODERN ECHOES

Just before the traditional Settling Day --- April 1^st --- the Hotel Corp. opened a stock selling drive. President Horstmann was introduced at a luncheon, where he described the plan.

Echoing a modern effort to create a “world class hotel”, the scheme in 1926 was to establish a chain of quality hotels in small communities. Instead of just the $1.50 charge for a first class dinner, the HCHC would also offer dinners priced at $1 and at 75 cents.

They were to outfit the interiors of the hotels before a cent was spent on the outsides. The ladies parlors were to be large enough so that small afternoon entertainments could be conducted without contact with the coarser, male element that tended to collect around hotels.

Pres. Horstmann made two huge business mistakes. First, he planned to keep the Cambridge Hotel open year round, which had not been done since it lost its liquor license. This would allow Villagers to close their homes and live all winter in the comfort of the hotel, a scheme that had been tried in the late 1800s.

NO BOOZE? NO BUSINESS!!

Then he pledged that there would be "no speak-easy arrangements" at any of the hotels. "Absolutely none...," he said, which, of course, doomed the enterprise from the outset!

The HCHC voted to change the form of the capital stock. The change called for a reduction of shares of capital stock from 20,000 of par value of $25 each to 7,500 shares of no par value. The Board of Directors, with the limitation that the capital stock should not be less than $15,000, would fix the consideration for these shares from time to time.

The Bd. of Directors also adopted a resolution calling for the issuing of notes of debentures of the Corp. A Mr. Milliman offered the resolution.

In April the HCHC began renovating the Cambridge and Greenwich hotels.

In mid-May, a whiskey still was discovered in Coila. Tony Slavey, formerly of Hoosick Falls, apparently set up there after it got too hot for him south. However, as the alcohol dripped from the copper coil, Slavey sampled too much of it.

Found drunk, his neighbors "persuaded" him to dump five barrels of mash, break up his operation and return to his wife and kids in Hoosick Falls.

"Dries" were busy that spring seeking a candidate to oppose the shaky Sen. Wadsworth. Then in June, he "came out of the closet" in favor of the repeal of the 18th Amendment. The usual result of this was that the Prohibition and Republican candidates would draw from the same pool and the "wet" Democrat would win.

WHITE SWAN OPENS

The White Swan Inn opened in Greenwich that July. It was the latest jewel in the HCHC crown, a remake of the old Hamilton House. It was named for White Swan Spring Water, in which one of the HCHC board members owned an interest.

Republican ranks were split over Prohibition that fall. The County party backed booze and a modified Volstead Act. However, Miss Mattie Gray and the White Creek committee of women stood firm against the endorsement of alcohol and Sen. Wadsworth.

Standard Oil's gas station on the Union House lot opened in mid-August.

Sometime in 1926 Otto Meinhardt lost the Hotel Cambridge on a foreclosure proceeding to the previous owner, Edward A. Ellis. Ellis bought it back for $20,000. Otto Meinhardt resigned as manager and returned to NYCity.

The HCHC went bankrupt. The $7,000, which the public had supplied, had gone to refurbish the White Swan and that was as far as they got.

In March, 1927, Ellis sold the Hotel Cambridge to Leslie R. Bird and Harry H. Griffin, brothers in law, of Rutland, VT.

Bird and Griffin had a more practical plan. With their wives, they wintered in Florida, where they managed an Inn in the village of Eustace. They did not hesitate to close the Hotel Cambridge all winter.

Their management resulted in what was best described as a “one horse hotel”. In fact, they published a little hotel booklet under that title.

And so it remained until sold to the Walter Ganns in 1945.

Roaring 20's Seduce Otto Meinhardt

In March, 1924, the Cambridge Hotel changed hands again. Edward Ellis sold the hotel to Otto Meinhardt of Montclair, NJ. The move was effective April 1. The new owner had previously owned the Hotel Meinhardt in New Jersey.

In May, the Rice Seed Co. entertained 100 employees at The Cambridge Hotel. The purpose was to invite employees to buy 4,000 shares of preferred stock at $20 a share.

Two nights later, the offer was made to 150 residents from outside the company.

That summer, bootlegging caught up with John J. Hankard, proprietor of the Lauderdale House. He died of injuries received in an automobile accident on the Salem Road at the Red (covered) Bridge. He was on his way home from Glens Falls when the auto "turned turtle" as he tried to make the turn near the bridge.

He was found crushed beneath the car with the brakes set and the engine still running.

His "family denies that the car was found to be full of Canadian ale, and that he was intoxicated when the accident occurred," wrote an unflinching Elizabeth Smart, then editor and proprietor of the Old WCP.

The summer of 1924 was the first year that Mrs. Ethel Powell operated a girls camp at Lauderdale.

That Fall, C.W. Cairns and Arthur H. Day bought of John Agan Sr. his old, Raines hotel on W. Main St.

Politics heated up that October. The WCP endorsed Col. Theodore Roosevelt for Governor, on the reasoning that he would put the State "back into the dry column" that Alfred E. Smith took it out of".

With Al Smith's knuckling under to the liquor interests, Old Cambridge found that there were drunks on the streets again. In November, Justice Alvan Robertson fined Louis Hebert and Joseph Pharanson for drunkenness. Arthur Pratt paid a $35 fine for driving while intoxicated.

Nonetheless, Al Smith was reelected governor, defeating Teddy. His was the lone democratic victory in a sea of Republicans.

Its new owners sponsored a series of lectures and readings by Mrs. Hannibal Williams at the Hotel Cambridge.

Warbled Elizabeth Smart, the new Post editor, "Mrs. Williams usually gives her readings before exclusive, metropolitan audiences, and it is due to her affection for this vicinity where her childhood was spent that we have the privilege of sharing in the enjoyment of her universally recognized gifts."

The Hannibal Williams lived during their professional lives on S. Union St. They each served as president of a national speech oratory assoc. and made their livings touring the Eastern US and presenting one-man shows of the Works of Shakespeare at colleges and Universities. Mrs. Williams was a native of Shushan. These internationally known performers are buried in Woodlands Cemetery near a huge monument just south of the Receiving Vault.

Charley Townsend obviously enjoyed the favor of the new owners of the Hotel Cambridge. But when the Meinhardts advertised Thanksgiving dinner that season, they were still serving for desert "pie and ice cream". Apparently, Charley had not yet dubbed it "pie ala mode".

Of course, 1924 was the first year Cambridge High School won the State Championship in football.

Despite the State law, Federal officers continued to enforce Prohibition in New York. A Fort Edward brewery, licensed to sell non-alcoholic beer, was found to be circulating alcoholic beer all over the county. They were shut down.

Federal officers raided the Tucker Inn, Eagle Mills, where the proprietor was selling liquor and operating a slot machine.

Elizabeth cheered for a New Jersey Priest who supposedly declined to bury a murdered bootlegger in sacred ground, even though the crook's name was Dion O'Bannion.

The American House in Granville was ordered to close for violating the Prohibition law.

On December 19, 1924, Robert McClellan followed his brother in death. His family had just moved into "Northwood", their new mansion on N. Park St.

As the year 1925 dawned, Radio was the rage. H. Herman Hitchcock received a certificate from the headquarters of the International Radio Broadcasting Test, after having heard and reported radio signals from European stations.

In January, John G. Smart died. He had been owner and editor of the WCP for 30 years. His daughter Elizabeth inherited the paper.

At a special election in January, under the recently adopted State Village law, the voters decided to have four trustees elected at large and a single road district, instead of three from each "corner" and two road districts.

By the annual Woodlands meeting in 1925, the Hubbard Chapel Fund had reached $4,635.

That March, "a good proportion" of the Nation could listen on their radios to the inauguration of Calvin Coolidge as President.

His response to a domestic fight prompted Sheriff N. Austin Baker to strike a blow for Prohibition. Mrs. Fannie Hover summoned him and Deputy Alexander from Salem. She and Mike Smoleffson claimed ownership of the same saw.

Mike struck Fannie in the mouth, whereupon Fannie pursued Mike with an axe. Mike naturally fled, but he returned with a rifle. Then Fannie fled.

When Fannie reported the incident to the Sheriff, she claimed that her husband was slain. This proved unfounded. But not to be disappointed, the Sheriff looked around. Sure enough, Smolleffson's shack hid a whiskey still. Sheriff Baker borrowed Fannie's axe, which Deputy Alexander then used to chop up the still.

At the Cambridge Fair that fall, only one stand had to be closed for selling liquor, although several dispensed the notorious "Fort Edward Beer".

But at the end of August, the Brick Hotel (Park and Main) was raided for selling "near" or "Fort Edward Beer". The old Hotel was operating with a swinging door bar and all accoutrements. This had been installed in time for the Fair crowds. "To the disgust of neighbors", the usual crowd of loungers collected around the doorstep.

Agents seized the "alleged" beer and some liquor and arrested Thomas Rogers, the owner. He was held on $1,000 bail pending a hearing that Sept. 22.

The hotel was closed so tightly that "even the ice man making his rounds could not get in", according to the WCP.

It was in the fall of 1925 that Cambridge High School achieved their greatest football season, undefeated and untied to the State Championship.

Then in late January, 1926, Otto Meinhardt announced a grandiose plan to organize and run the Home Comfort Hotel Corp. The centerpiece would be his Hotel Cambridge, but the corporation would own and manage a total of three hotels: The Cambridge, The Hamilton House in Greenwich and a $250,000 hotel to be built in Granville.

Naturally, local investors were invited to participate.