Title: MILDRED E. STRANG AND HER IMPACT ON LOCAL SCHOOLS
Location: Yorktown Hart Library, 1130 Main St. Shrub Oak
Description: By Mary Anne Ruvo, team leader of Yorktown Historic House Tours and active in the community . Who was Mildred E. Strang? She was born and raised in Yorktown and dedicated her life as a teacher, educator, and administrator and leader here for 39 years. She started her career in 1928 with 500 students and retired in 1969 with an enrollment of over 5000 students with six new schools built during that time. The district went from a small town agricultural community in 1930 to the population explosion in the 1960’s. Ms. Strang’s influence was ever present. She was a phenomenal woman and referred to as “a leader among her peers”. Hear about her lasting impact on the community and its schools.
Start Time: 19:30
Date: 2017-03-16

Title: THIRTY YEARS NOT A SLAVE
Location: Yorktown Hart Library, 1130 Main St. Shrub Oak
Description: By Howard Husock, Contributing Editor, City Journal, Manhattan Institute. This is the story of William Voris in Rye. In the early 19th century, The Hudson like the Ohio River divided slavery from freedom. New York had banned slavery but New Jersey at the time did not. It appears that William Voris had fled Bergen County and relocated in Westchester. Mr. Voris of Rye became among the nation’s wealthiest African-American business owners at that time. This is a story of what could happen when blacks had the chance to be free and to benefit from economic opportunity. Mr. Voris is buried in the Rye African American Cemetery.
Start Time: 21:30
Date: 02-16-2017

Chief Nimham was a key player in the 1700s. He contested the Phillipse's deed to the Phillipsburg Manor, led a group with Roger's Rangers during the French and Indian War and traveled to England to argue against some of the land grants. His son was a captain of a company with the Continental Army. 

On August 31, 1778, the Nimhams and fifty of their fellow Wappingers were surrounded then killed by Loyalist, British Dragoons and Hessian Soldiers under the command of Lt. Colonel Simcoe, the villain of TV's "Turn" series, in the Battle of Kingsbridge Cortlandt Ridge in what is now Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. 

"The Story of the Nimhams" will be presented by Alfred (Stone-Heart) and Edward (Wolf) Conley.  The brothers are descendants of Chief Daniel Nimham and are members of the Schanghticoke First Nation.  November is Native American month.  

Title: The Chain That Saved Colonies

Description: To stop the British invasion of the New England colonies during the American Revolution, Peter Townsend manufactured a Great Chain for the Continental Army at Sterling Forest. It was placed across the Hudson River at West Point. Join Doc Bayne for an eye-opening lecture & PowerPoint presentation on this historic event.
 

As a child of Yorktown there is so much about the town that I know and love. Stories abound about our town and when researching my primary passions, the Croton Dam and the Croton River Valley, I often stumble upon other interesting historical data. Mildred E. Strang is of particular interest and was even the subject of another blog. In researching Miss Strang, I stumbled upon some information that drew me into a tangential search that led to some interesting, if nearly forgotten, Yorktown history.

When I was quite young and the John C. Hart Memorial Library was nothing more than a trailer parked next door to the Town Hall and across from “Kear’s” (The Meadows Farm), my mother would take me there to browse while we both enjoyed the air conditioning on a hot summer day. On those shelves I found a treasure trove of books that likely guided me to teach history. I also found books that were connected directly to Yorktown, which as a young boy fascinated me.

My favorite book combined my obsession with trains in general and the abandoned Putnam Division in particular. The Country Train (1950), by Jerrold Beim (born Gerald), was a regular on my list of books to borrow. As I read that book with my mother, we turned the page with anticipation to see Train 831 stopped at the Yorktown Heights station. WOW! A book about my own town, about “my own train,” and even showing Croton Heights (my neighborhood) and the Hanover Street camelback bridge from which my father and his friends had thrown small pebbles into the smokestack of the steam engines as they moved through town on their way to Brewster or to the Bronx.

Ten years ago, my son Christopher was born and, of course, we both enjoy trains, visiting the Yorktown Heights station, and learning about the history of my hometown at the museum. The power of the Internet being what it is, I hunted down this book – The Country Train (1950). It was exactly as I remembered – and now I had the author’s name again – Jerrold Beim. Searching various websites, I slowly purchased most of the books that were written by him out of curiosity about the Yorktown connection. As I read the books, connections to Yorktown and, even, my family, became apparent. The Country Fireman (1948) featured a small firehouse clearly modeled after the one that once stood behind the current firehouse in Yorktown Heights (and was torn down in recent decades) with mentions of Underhill Road.

From: The Country Fireman, William Morrow & Co., 1948 (by Jerrold Beim and illustrated by Leonard Shortall)

The Swimming Hole (1950)(my mother’s favorite, as I recalled after reading it again) was about Junior Lake and included, as my mother felt sure, one of her friends from Yorktown Central School. With Two is a Team (1945), by Lorraine and Jerrold Beim, these books were groundbreaking in that they broke racial barriers and addressed racism directly, according to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature. In fact, Two is a Team is generally considered the first children’s book in America to portray a friendship between an African American and a white child where both are on equal footing. This book was also the first children’s book illustrated by an African American, Ernest Chrichlow, who is best known for his work on Dorothy Sterling’s Mary Jane (1959).

Two is a Team, Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1945

To be continued…..

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