On the morning of June 15, 1897, a large fire destroyed the immigrant landing station that covered most of Ellis Island, causing a property loss of close to $1 million for the United States Government.
Every immigrant escaped unharmed, thanks to the watchmen, attendants, doctors, and nurses who came to their rescue. All of the employees were also accounted for, thanks to the heroic pet dog of Dr. Joseph H. Senner, the Commissioner of Immigration.
Read the rest of this entry »How far would your cats be willing to go to catch a rat? Would they be willing to jump in a river like this barge office cat Old New York once did?
My two cats live indoors, and I’ve yet to see any type of rodent in my house, but I’d make a pretty high wager that neither Boo nor Misha would jump into a lake or river to catch a rat. In fact, I can easily picture them putting on the jelly-bean brakes at the edge of the water and watching the rodent swim away.
Richard II the Barge Office cat was an extraordinary exception to the feline rules. According to his owner, policeman Richard “Dick” Ganley, Richard II would do anything to catch a rat—he’d even jump into the Upper Bay and swim toward Governors Island or the Statue of Liberty in hot pursuit. Richard II could swim better than any duck, and it never took him long to catch up with the swimming rodents. According to Dick, his namesake always came out the winner, whether hunting rats by land or by sea.
Read the rest of this entry »Woodside has been uncomfortable ever since the wild animal farm, as it is known locally, was opened about a year ago. Every woman in the place has predicted that the animals would escape some dark, cold night and wipe out the town, devouring buildings and inhabitants. These predictions came near becoming true on Monday night… Every one trembled as word was passed from house to house, ‘The Ruhe wild animal farm has broken loose and we shall all be eaten alive.’–Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 23, 1905
It wasn’t a cold night, the entire population of the animal farm did not escape, and the town wasn’t devoured. But it was probably dark when 10 elephants from the Ruhe Wild Animal Farm at 50-15 47th Avenue in Woodside, Queens, broke lose from their wooden enclosures and went trampling and trumpeting through the thick woods surrounding the farm buildings. As news of their escape spread, young boys gathered around 47th Avenue, Queens Boulevard, and 50th Street to watch as the animals’ caretakers rode around on horseback carrying elephant hooks, spears, ropes, and other tools.
Eventually all the elephants were rounded up and placed back in their enclosures. But it was a long time before sleep returned to Woodside (word is, there was a lot of activity at the local saloons that night).
Yes, this was Woodside Queens, adjacent to the Calvary Cemetery on Queens Boulevard, where a giant PC Richards electronics store and parking lot now stand. Amazing what 110 years can do to a place.
Read the rest of this entry »…But for the investigating nose of the old sow it would have remained there this day…Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 16, 1888
How many more pots of gold are buried around the same old premises the tourist does not really know, finding pots of gold not being his vocation.–Newtown Register, August 19, 1886
In my last post about the feline mascot of TWA pilots at La Guardia Airport, I wrote about all the items that were buried to create landfill when the airport was constructed in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Some of the items included a colonial-era graveyard, some amusement park rides, a few hundred old safes, and several thousand automobiles.
While I was doing research for that story, I dug up an obscure tale about a pig that dug up a pot of gold on the old Teunis Brinckerhoff farm. The farm had been located on a hillside near the Dutch Kills Creek, in the neighborhood we now call Sunnyside, Queens.
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Once upon a time–around 1638–a farmer named Hendrick Harmensen took his cows from New Amsterdam and re-settled on a point of land along the Bowery Bay, where the East River and Flushing Bay meet on the northern tip of what we now call East Elmhurst, Queens. For several years, Harmensen–also known as Henrick the Boor or Henry the Farmer–was the only farmer on the north side of Long Island.
Hendrick Harmensen was reportedly killed by Native Americans during an uprising in 1643. Over the next 200 years, the land was occupied by numerous Dutch settlers and their descendants, including members of the Fish, Jackson, Luyster, Rapelye, Riker Cornell, Brinckerhoff, Schenck, Noorstrandt, Coggins, Purdy, Klock, Berrien, and Kouwenhoven families.
Many of these settlers were buried in a small family cemetery on a bluff overlooking the Bowery Bay. The cemetery has been buried under LaGuardia Airport for 80 years.
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