Looking Back in Philipstown

250 Years Ago (December 1775)
The royal governor in New York, William Tyron, took 25 folio volumes of records of the Colony of New York to a British ship anchored in the harbor, HMS Duchess of Gordon, for "safekeeping."
The New York Provincial Congress, in reply to a Tyron appeal for peace, said the revolt was not due to "a desire to become independent of the British crown" nor a lack of devotion to the king, but only because of the "oppressive acts of the British parliament."
The Continental Congress passed the Naval Construction Act of 1775, which authorized the fitting of 13 gunships, including two stationed in New York.
The Provincial Congress ordered 1,000 copies of the proceedings of the Continental Congress translated into Dutch and German.
150 Years Ago (December 1875)
The company running the Sunk Mine in Putnam Valley ordered the operation shut down, throwing about 100 miners and 50 drivers out of work. Many of the teamsters had spent hundreds of dollars to get their horses and wagons fit for the winter, and several grocers had extended considerable credit.
Constable James McAndrew presented a bill to the Putnam County Legislature for $50 [about $1,500 today] for his services, but a motion was passed to strike $4.75 in line items for tea and horse feed.
William Foster shot and killed "a fine dog" owned by John Brewer for humane reasons, according to The Cold Spring Recorder. The dog was being pelted with snowballs by a group of boys when it ran under the No. 5 train to escape, losing a leg and becoming valueless.
Five shirts were taken from Michael McCormick's clothesline.
The steamer New Champion made its last delivery to the wharf before being retired; even with the lower rates for river transport, the tariff was $450 [$13,000].
William Wood, 24, was severely burned on the head and face while filling an alcohol lamp in Samuel Owen's home.
Seth Secor brought two tubs of lard from the depot to his store on a Wednesday afternoon, rolled one inside and left the other on the porch. Two hours later, the second tub had disappeared. A search was conducted among the itinerants at Sandy Landing, where the tub was found hidden in leaves with most of the lard removed.
Caleb Mekeel returned from Florida with a carpet bag full of oranges.
Gangland Cold Spring
On Dec. 18, 1875, The New York Times published a lengthy front-page story about the fall of the Highland Brigands, a gang of thieves whose leader and fence both lived in Cold Spring. For the previous two years, the gang had been a menace, burglarizing freight cars for whatever they could, including a shipment of corsets.
The Times story was based on the testimony of a detective who had posed as a thief and won the confidence of the fence, Isaac Levy, who had moved to Cold Spring with his wife after the Civil War and owned two Main Street businesses: a cigar store/barbershop and a clothing store/oyster bar. Mrs. Levy grew suspicious of this new friend, but Levy vouched for him.
The gang's leader was William "Bill" Conroy, who was in jail in Oneida County after being charged in a home invasion there. His sisters and mother also lived in Cold Spring, which he considered his hometown.
Levy confided much to the undercover detective about crimes committed and planned. For example, he said he'd heard the wife of a railroad flagman who lived in a shanty south of the Garrison station was observed hiding $8,000 [$235,000] in her Bible. Levy alerted his gang, but another gang from the Bowery arrived first, tied up the couple and stole their gold, but couldn't find the cash.
Levy also told the detective that Isaac Delanoy, the night watchman at the Cold Spring station, and Mr. Ferris, the village justice, were making it "hot" for the gang and may need to be "fixed." Levy said after the men were dead, he would summon 20 gangsters from the city to burn down the wood-framed village, which had no fire company or water works.
Meanwhile, Conroy, sitting in jail in Rome, New York, had aske...