Get into a conversation with a long time Queens resident
and you're likely to discover a subscriber of the Long Island Star- Journal,
a daily paper that informed the community about local and world news until
it folded in 1968. A banner across the Star Journal masthead reminded
readers that the newspaper's name came from the merger of the Long Island
Daily Star (1876) and the North Shore Daily Journal - The Flushing Journal
(1841).
Welcome to 1917!
The United States was in the thick of World War I in October 1917. The Star-Journal reported regularly on the movement of troops through Queens on their way to training camps or overseas, usually mentioning the appreciative crowds who turned out to cheer them on. But there was an unfortunate incident on October 19th when "soldiers attacked a Negro porter. Stabbed and beaten by soldiers of a southern regiment, Charles Farrer, 52 years old, of Ozone Park, is in St. John’s Hospital in serious condition. Farrer was set upon by the soldiers at the Borden Avenue station of the Long Island Railroad and bayoneted in the face. About 75 members of a regiment believed to be from the Alabama contingent were on the train, according to railroad officials. Officials of the Long Island Railroad are now conducting an investigation and will not stop until the guilty soldiers are brought to justice."
Weekly there were reports in the Star-Journal from Queens recruits in training camps or already at the front. Sergeant Alvah Thompson of Astoria wrote from "Somewhere in France" that "very few trees are left. All you see along the road is dugouts, trenches, barbed wire and graves." However, he reassured his parents that he was too far from the fighting to be in danger. A former Star-Journal reporter, Paul Tierney, who was serving in the ambulance corps with the American forces in France, wrote that "we get along well with the French people, who are polite and cordial, often taking us into their homes."
On the other side of the Atlantic, the Star-Journal praised the patriotic hospitality
of Jackson Heights residents. "We have had occasion before to refer to the
remarkable community spirit that prevails at this unusual apartment house development.
On the invitation of the residents, members of the 117th trench mortar of
Baltimore and the 151st field artillery of Minnesota were transported to and
from [Camp Mills on Long Island], given home-cooked dinners in the various apartments, and
then entertained at the casino with music and a dance. Jackson Heights is to be
congratulated for doing a gracious thing in a gracious way."
Garden apartments in Jackson Heights, opened two years earlier by the Queensboro
Corporation, were considered a very innovative experiment.
The extension of the Corona subway line (today’s 7 train) would make the neighborhood more
accessible to commuters. The parent real estate company was in the news on October
26th, when Mayor John Mitchel was denying allegations made against him in
the bitterly fought election campaign that was vying with the war news for coverage.
Characterizing the charges against him as "outright falsehoods," the Mayor
denied "that he received $5,000 for changing the Corona subway route in favor
of the interests of the Queensboro Corporation."
Mitchel had been elected in 1913. His administration was known for its efforts to cut waste and rid the city of the alleged corruption of the Democratic political machine known as Tammany Hall. In 1917 Tammany fought hard to put their candidate John Hylan into the Mayor’s office. On October 25, James Cronin, chairman of the Queens campaign to elect Hylan, charged that Mitchel’s behavior "verges on treason. . . . His picturing of himself on the walls of the city in the garb of an American soldier has aroused the anger and contempt of all the patriotic citizens of the city." Cronin’s prediction that "Hylan will carry Queens by a large majority" was proved correct in November when Hylan was elected Mayor by a landslide. The defeated Mitchel went on to prove his patriotism by enlisting in the army but was killed in 1918 during training as a combat pilot. Mitchel Square in Washington Heights is named after him.
Mayor John Mitchel Square in Washington
Heights is named after Mayor Mitchel who was killed in 1918 during training as a combat pilot.
Courtesy Western
Queens Gazette
Women were not yet allowed to vote in the election of 1917. However, their tireless war work was one of the factors that led to the passing of universal suffrage in 1920. On October 19 the Star-Journal announced that "women fighters for democracy will carry their campaign for food conservation into Queens on the week of October 22, and it is hoped by those in charge of the U.S. Food Administration that by the end of the week nearly 1,200,000 New York housewives will have put their signatures on the administration’s ‘pledge cards.’ When the card is signed, the canvasser presents the housewife with a colored window card announcing she is a member in good standing of the U.S. Food Administration."
Queens women also had to cope with war shortages. It was predicted that the "sugar famine" in the borough would extend into December, and future president Herbert Hoover, then head of Food Administration, appealed to people not to pay black-market prices. On October 26 the Star-Journal ran a story on the lack of coal; a coal dealer in Elmhurst said that people would go cold that winter. "In College Point it was said by a dealer that there was not a pound of coal in the yard."
College Point was in the news again when a three-alarm fire gutted the plant of the British-American Chemical Company on October 12. Rumors spread that the fire had been caused by the combustion of chemicals used in the secret manufacture of war munitions. On October 20, chairman C.W. Embrey sent a signed statement to the editor reassuring "the people of the village that his company is not manufacturing chemicals to be used in making ammunition and that its product is in no way dangerous to the health and safety of the neighborhood."
On a lighter note, on October 5 the Star-Journal gave an account of an outing to Long Island City made by "Professor Kelly and several members of the City History Club. The first place they visited was the old cemetery of Thomas Cumberson, who was of the third generation of that family. The cemetery, on Betts Avenue, formerly Betts Lane, was once an orchard, and from the spot the visitors could see the site of the old homestead torn down in 1915. From the Cumberson burying ground the party went to Mt. Zion cemetery where they looked over the old Betts family burying plot."
"The old Betts homestead stood at Betts and Borden avenues, and upon leaving Mt. Zion cemetery Professor Kelly and party made their way to the resting place of ‘100-year-old Betts,’ as he was called, a member of that family who lived a century and is buried in a grave he dug for himself when he felt his time on earth was drawing to a close. No monument marks the spot, for Betts was of the Quaker faith and did not believe in such show."
"The old Brooks school was next visited, then the party crossed to the Covert House, which was in its day a fine place but is now nothing more than a ruin. The next point of interest visited was the house where De Witt Clinton, first governor of New York, lived. Although needing repairs, the old house is still in a fair state of preservation. The Clinton homestead was one of the most notable of its day. Returning to the Betts house, the party continued on their way, stopping to look at the Queen’s Head Tavern now turned into a house. This old tavern was a stopping place for stages from Newtown to the ferry at Fulton Street, Brooklyn. Here also Governor Clinton gave a dinner that was celebrated in history for its grandeur."
'Aribitration Rock'
"‘Arbitration Rock’ was next in their walk. The rock figures as a boundary between the towns of Newtown and Bushwick. The visitors found it nearly covered with earth and debris. A dispute over the boundary line between the towns started as far back as 1661. The feeling ran so high than men of one community would stone those of another." In 1768, "a bill was passed in the legislature for a commission to draw a line to designate the boundary between the two townships. Still the dispute was not settled until 1880 when the state sent Martin G. Johnson and three other men to verify the point on the old rock made in 1661."
"The City History Club spent an hour or more in the vicinity of this old rock and noted how the ground was desecrated with a collection of old bottles, barrels, etc. Mr. Sours, who aided Professor Kelly and his party in locating the rock, said that when he was a boy it stood out of the ground so high that he had to climb up to the top of it to see the arrow cut thereon."
"Going back to Flushing Avenue the visitors stopped at the old Schoonmaker place and found the place that was once a famous garden spot a dumping ground for rubbish of all kinds. Across the street they found the old Nicholas Wycoff house of Revolutionary days. This property stands today as Nicholas Wycoff left it, barn and all." In Newtown, the party viewed "the old Moore house where the Newtown pippin was made famous. When Professor Kelly and party reached the Bridge Plaza again they declared that they has spent a profitable afternoon."
That’s the way it was in October 1917.
Compiled by Clare Doyle, Librarian, Greater Astoria Historical
Society.
