A Break For Some Local News

While on a holiday break at the Columbia County Fair, I'm sharing this special episode featuring local news stories from the Chatham Courier newspapers of the 1800s, available through the Hudson River Valley Heritage Historical Newspapers Archive.

I'll be back to normal programming in the next episode. Watch out for the horse thieves!

Chapters

• 0:00 Holiday Weekend Episode Intro
• 0:55 Historic Chatham Courier Headlines Begin
• 1:22 Horse Thieves and Prison Escapes
• 3:01 Social News and Fashion Updates
• 4:40 Local and Regional Happenings
• 7:50 Episode Conclusion

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hey James here. The podcast is taking a break for the holiday weekend. I'm at the Columbia County Fair, hopefully getting some really good seats for the tractor pull, which is always very exciting. But to keep posting podcast episodes consistently, because I hear that's very important, I wanted to do something a little different for this episode. I'm working on this upcoming guide to the many Chathams, chatham, new York, and I came across in my research some old newspaper scans of the Chatham Courier, which is its one-time major newspaper of the day. These are all available online as part of the Hudson River Valley Heritage Historical Newspapers Archive, which is administered by the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council. I will link to this database in my show notes. But there's some really fun stories so I thought it would be fun to present a bit of local news here on the podcast feed. So here we go. It's news literally as it was printed in the printed page. This is what I would think the Chatham Couriers podcast would sound like if they had a daily headline news podcast. So let's get to it the headline news from the front pages of the 1800s. I'm James Cave and this is the Jiffy In local news and gossip.

Speaker 1: 1:22

Dog days have ended and cat nights appear to have just commenced. A couple horse thieves, who were decamping with the team they had stolen in Troy, stopped at the Columbia Hotel about 10 o'clock on Sunday evening and whet their whistles when they went forward again. It is reported that since leaving Buffalo a few days since they had stolen, three different teams and officers in pursuit of them reached Troy only 10 minutes after the thieves had left. They were followed down the river as far as Hudson where all trace of them was lost until they turned up here. As soon as the facts were known, certain parties started in pursuit but returned without overtaking them. It is said. A freshly made wagon track with double team turned from the highway into the woods near Green River and was followed for some distance until lost sight of, and the pursuing party feel confident that thieves were secreted in that vicinity on Monday. Half a dozen convicts made their escape from the state prison at Sing Sing on Sunday by seizing a small sloop just as she was approaching the wharf to discharge a load of blasting powder and securing the two deckhands in the hold of the vessel. While a portion of the party put the sloop about and headed her for the opposite shore of the river. The others pinioned the guard and held him in front of them, thus shielding themselves from the fire of the guard on the wharf. They reached the opposite shore and disappeared.

Speaker 1: 2:39

An exchange tells how Colonel Brown was induced to excuse a young lady from waltzing with him. Colonel Brown is a good-looking and a famous dancer, patronizes all the country balls and adores the rosy-cheeked, unsophisticated country girls. At a late ball on the frontier, the gallant colonel approached a blushing damsel and asked her to waltz. When she replied no, I thank you, I don't like to waltz, it makes me puke the colonel didn't press her, saying that he feared the consequences. An English-married lady has consulted her lawyer on the question whether whether, having married her husband for his money and that money being all spent, she is not a widow at liberty to marry again and in railroad items.

Speaker 1: 3:21

A week or two ago, as the way freight train on the New York and Lake Erie Railroad was running at full speed east of Friendship Village, a small child was discovered on the track ahead of the train and seemed indisposed to attempt to get off. The engineer did his best to stop the train but seeing his inability to do so, the fireman, whose name is Ellis, got on the cowcatcher and as the train neared, the child leaped off and caught it jumping off just in time to save his own life and that of the little one In Boats Now the People's Line of Hudson River Steamers proposes to put an electric light on the bow of each of their night boats, and the steamer Drew took to New York one day last week 9,000 boxes of cheese as 300 tons worth $90,000. This is the largest load of cheese ever taken down the river. The Hudson Star says that on Sunday night the 13th S Critsman Esquire merchant tailor of that city was robbed of his vest containing $10 in money while asleep in a stateroom on board the steamer Traveler. The thief apparently entered through the window and in fashion items today, ladies now ornament their notepaper with small photographs of themselves. They fashion supersede monograms. If they are pretty, it will do very well. Otherwise the fashion should be discarded. It is not advisable to go out of doors without anything on your head or into society without anything in it. Ladies should be on the lookout now for the autumn leaves which decorate drawing rooms so prettily in the winter. They're advised not to look out for the sear and yellow leaf, as they fall to pieces, and this under the headline A Valuable Secret.

Speaker 1: 4:56

The Scientific American says the unpleasant odor procured by a perspiration is frequently the source of vexation to persons who are subject to it. Nothing is simpler than to remove this odor, much more effectually than by the application of such onguents and perfumes as are in use. It is only necessary to procure some of the compound spirits of ammonia and place about two tablespoonfuls in a basin of water. Washing the face, hands and arms with this leaves the skin as clean, sweet and fresh as one could wish. The wash is perfectly harmless and very cheap. It is recommended on the authority of an experienced physician and now in items of the near vicinity. Captain Joel Minor of Canaan, connecticut, is nearly 90 years of age and milks six cows morning and evening, pitches off loads and hay over the Great Beam and does other remarkable feats for a man of his age. The New Haven Palladium says, quote we are informed of the best authority that PT Barnum has nothing to do with Mr Allen's lecturing tour. He is no longer in the show business and if he were would not countenance so dubious a character.

Speaker 1: 6:02

And Henry Finley and Mrs Elizabeth W Fox, two spiritual mediums arrested in Hartford, connecticut, for adultery had their trial in the police court of that city. They said they had been living as man and wife for some time past and pleaded in justification of the higher law and the spirits. The judge said that the higher law of Connecticut made it a state prison offense for every married man and woman to commit adultery and as they had acknowledged themselves guilty, he placed them under $400 bond each for a trial before the Superior Court. To this Mrs Fox meekly replied they were remanded to jail. A boy, only four years old, was found drunk in Albany Saturday last week. In Schenectady the same night a 12-year-old lad was picked up, so drunk that he had become utterly unconscious.

Speaker 1: 6:48

The old elm on the village green at Pittsfield, massachusetts, has been cut down and sold at auction for $10 to a person who received 100 pounds for small pieces of it. Within a short time later the tree was at least 300 years old and had been struck several times by lightning. The distance from the ground to its first limb was over 100 feet and everybody in Pittsfield regretted that safety made its removal necessary. A live fox was caught in Washington Street, poughkeepsie, on the night of the 24th. Three bald eagles have been shot in New Hamburg within a few weeks past, two of them on one tree. These are rare visitants in this section of the country.

Speaker 1: 7:22

And some good news to close us out. It looks like we have a cure for dysentery. In a teacup half full of vinegar, dissolve as much salt as it will take up, leaving a little excess of salt at the bottom of the cup. Pour boiling water upon the solution till the cup is two-thirds or three-quarters full. A scum will rise to the surface which must be removed, and the solution is allowed to cool. As for your dosage, take a tablespoonful three times a day until cured. Well, this concludes the local news from the Jiffy. This was all real news as printed in the pages of the Chatham Courier in the 1800s. It's the paper of record for the many Chathams. The Jiffy will be back to normal in our next episode, but until then I guess I'll see you over on the james key instagram feed.