In the 1600s, the island of Manhattan comprised New Amsterdam and Harlem. These settlements were separated by wilderness inhabited by Native Americans and wild animals, including wolves. According to James W. Beekman, president of the New York Historical Society in 1869, as late as 1685 there was a proclamation granting the permission to hunt and kill the wolves found on the island. But by 1891, no one expected to see a wolf roaming Manhattan, especially on the Bowery in the crowded Lower East Side.
Archive for June, 2015
1912: Chief John Rush and Victor, the Fire Horse That Lost it on Varick Street
Posted: 10th June 2015 by The Hatching Cat in FDNY Horses/Mascots, Horse TalesTags: Battalion Chief John Rush, Chief Edward Croker, FDNY, fire horse, New York Fire Patrol
“It seems a strange irony of fate that a minor accident should have killed Chief Rush. I had almost come to think he bore a charmed life. One gets such ideas of men who pass through seemingly impassable dangers unscathed.”–Doctor Archer, St. Vincent’s Hospital, April 26, 1912
