Editor's note: Beacon was created in 1913 from Matteawan and Fishkill Landing.
150 Years Ago (September 1875)
Ten residents armed with revolvers formed a "vigilance committee" in Matteawan to "protect persons and property from prowling tramps and other marauders."
The roof of the Fishkill Landing Machine Works caught fire from a spark from the chimney.
The Dutchess County Citizen, which covered Matteawan, Fishkill and Pine Plains, closed and its publisher left town.
When the ticket agent for the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad Co. went upstairs at the depot on a Monday afternoon to retrieve some papers, he left behind his vest, which had $30 [$880] in cash in the pockets. Two boys on the platform testified that James McGinnis, 18, took the money and promised them 50 cents [$15] each to say nothing. The judge set bail at $200 [$6,000].
George Kittridge, while hunting with Henry Alden on a Thursday morning, accidentally shot his companion in the knee. The limb had to be amputated, and Alden died that afternoon.
Judge Ornshee of Matteawan ruled that Ada Ray, 14, Minnie Ray, 7, and Willie Ray, 5, had been abandoned by their mother, Olive, and sent them to the House of Refuge at Randall's Island.
125 Years Ago (September 1900)
At a Democratic meeting held at Fishkill, John Gracey, a Republican produce vendor, threw ripe fruit at one of the speakers, Col. John Dougherty. "Arrests were made," according to The Cold Spring Recorder.
The lineup was released for the firemen's parade at Fishkill and Matteawan: local and visiting fire chiefs, Flocton's Band (Peekskill), Cortland Hook and Ladder (Peekskill), Keink's Band (New York City), Phoenix Hose (Poughkeepsie), Fishkill and Matteawan Military Band (30 pieces), Lewis Tompkins Hose (Fishkill Landing), Nineteenth Separate Drum Corps (Poughkeepsie), Davy Crockett Hook and Ladder (Poughkeepsie), 90th Regiment Band (Kingston), W.H. Mase Hook and Ladder (Matteawan), Middletown Drum Corps, Eagle Hose (Middletown), Rifton Glen Band, Weiner Hose (Kingston), Wheeler & Wilson Band (Bridgeport) and Beacon Engine (Matteawan).
Belle Archer, one of the most photographed actors and singers of the 1890s, performed her new Western-themed play, "Jess of the Bar Z," at Fishkill Landing on Sept. 4 as part of a statewide tour. [Two weeks later, Archer tripped at a train station south of Buffalo and hit her head, causing a fatal brain bleed. She was 41.]
According to a newspaper account, Mrs. Winthrop Sargent of Matteawan had for nine years operated a school for housekeepers from her home, which included a model kitchen garden. "The pupils do all the work, undertaking for a term of three weeks at a time the duties, now of one servant, now of another, until they thoroughly understand all," it said.
The Rev. J. McGrath of St. John's Church admonished his congregation during a sermon for not wearing hats to Mass. He also warned the men that they could not attend services dressed in then-fashionable "shirtwaists" that resembled blouses.
Marguerite Upton, 8, who lived in the Timothyville brickyard settlement, was shot in the arm, which had to be amputated. She said she had found a loaded .48-caliber revolver in a drawer. However, a week later, she confessed to a nurse that her cousin, Frank Kilpatrick, 17, had shot her accidentally after coming into the room and playfully telling her, "Throw up your hands!"
The Matteawan coroner identified remains found in an abandoned well at a farm near Stormville as Charles Brower, a laborer who had disappeared 14 years earlier. According to witnesses, he and Peter Austin, who owned the farm, left the Austin house together, but only Austin returned. A search party found nothing. In 1898 Austin sold the farm, and the new owner discovered the skeleton. Investigators learned that Austin owed Brower $300 [$11,500], and Mrs. Austin said she was "tricked" by police into admitting her husband had confessed to her.
Edward Selek, a Russian making his way to New York City, was struck...
