On This Day in Yonkers History

October 17, 1912

Frederick Davenport, a Yonkers resident and former Senator, addressed workers of the Alexander Smith Carpet Company at the company's Elm St. gate.  He was running for Lieutenant Governor on the Progressive Party* ticket, with Oscar Solomon Straus heading the state ticket.  The Progressive Party received 25% of the vote.  Mr. Davenport returned to the NY Senate in 1919, and then was elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican in 1924, serving from 1925 to 1933.

The Progressive Party (also known as the Bull Moose Party) was a U.S. dissident political party that nominated former president Theodore Roosevelt as its candidate in the presidential election of 1912. The formal name and general objectives of the party were revived 12 years later. Opposing the entrenched conservatism of the regular Republican Party, which was controlled by Pres. William Howard Taft, a National Republican Progressive League was organized in 1911 by Sen. Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin. The group became the Progressive Party the following year and on August 7, 1912, met in convention and nominated Roosevelt for president and Gov. Hiram W. Johnson of California for vice president.  It called for revision of the political nominating machinery and an aggressive program of social legislation.

The party’s popular nickname of Bull Moose was derived from the characteristics of strength and vigor often used by Roosevelt to describe himself. He waged an energetic campaign, during the course of which an insane man in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, shot him while on his way to make a speech. He went ahead with his address, telling the crowd that he had a bullet in his body but assuring them that “it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” The Bull Moose ticket polled some 25 percent of the popular vote. Thus split, the Republicans lost the election to the Democrats under Woodrow Wilson. The Bull Moose Party evaporated, and the Republicans were reunited four years later.

 

Source:  Yonkers Rising, October 14, 2016 and Encyclopedia Britannica (online)

Circle of Sisters Expo

Come join us this weekend at the Circle of Sisters Expo.

Produced and hosted by WBLS-FM, HOT 97-FM, WLIB–AM and Emmis Communications, COS hosts a variety of panel discussions, seminars, and inspirational services, as well as a Gospel concert and fashion show, in addition to over 300 vendors and small businesses selling unique items and services all weekend. 

October 15-16 at the Jakob K. Javits Center., Level 1, Halls 1A-1C.  We'll be in Booth 733, so stop by.

Setting up our booth tonight

Setting up our booth tonight

Looks even better in person

Looks even better in person

Beautiful Tulip stump

Beautiful Tulip stump

History Lesson

How Yonkers Got Its Name

This past week we posted some interesting historical "goings on" in Yonkers in the 20th century, which were fun to research.  Yonkers has a rich and varied history and one that is filled with quite a few firsts.   Here now, we give you some historical information on the city that NYCitySlab calls home.

The first residents of the City of Yonkers were Native Americans of the Algonquin, Mohegan and Manhattes tribes.  Napperckamack, the name of their village (which means rapid water settlement) was where the Neperah stream, which is the present day Saw Mill River, flowed into the Hudson or Shatemuck River.

In 1609, the Dutch West India Company sponsored Henry Hudson's expedition up the waterway which now bears his name, to find a new sailing route to India.  His discovery led to fur trading with the Indians at various points along the river.

Under Dutch rule, the purchase of lands became quite a business.  Twenty years after Peter Minuit bought Manhattan Island for the grand sum of $24, Adriaen Van der Donck received a land grant from the Dutch West India Company.  In addition to being the first lawyer in the Dutch colony, Van der Donck was a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam (modern New York City), and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the Dutch West India Company-run trading post.  

As the area's patron and as dictated by Dutch law, Van der Donck bought the land from the Indian Sachem of the Keskeskick in the late 1640's and named it Colen-Donck (Donck Colony). He built one of the first saw mills in the the New World on De Zaag Kill, or the Saw Mill River, in 1649. Van der Donck was referred to as De Jonkheer, "young gentleman" or "young nobleman".  De Jonkheer evolved through several changes to The Younckers, The Yonkers and finally to present day Yonkers.

            Adriaen Van der Donck

            Adriaen Van der Donck

No Fuss, No Muss

Buying wood from NYCitySlab is as easy as can be.  The hard part will be deciding which slabs to get.

We have a very large selection of slabs, some are even prettier than this pair of Walnut.Make an appointment, choose what you need, pay and take with you. We can mill to your specifications and finish the slabs too.   

We have a very large selection of slabs, some are even prettier than this pair of Walnut.

Make an appointment, choose what you need, pay and take with you. 

We can mill to your specifications and finish the slabs too.