Instant Justice

100 years ago

At noon Jan. 16, 1912, a drunken man from The Glen, driving a willing team of horses that were doing their level best to draw a heavy lead of wood up Ridge Street hill in Warrensburgh, was pounding them with a big whip because they couldn’t do it. At the same time he was disgusting passers-by with a stream of horrible profanity. He was given a dose of his own medicine when Elliot Church took the whip away from him and gave his a vigorous thrashing with it. The act was heartily approved of by those who witnessed it.

taken from

The Adirondack Journal

Turning Back The Pages

by Jean Hadden

Bad day at the South Pole

100 years ago

British naval Capt. Robert Falcon Scott finally arrived at the South Pole on Jan. 18, 1912 after a horrendous trip filled with peril only to find to his despair explorer Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian flag stuck in the snow where he placed it five weeks earlier.

#To add insult to injury, Amundsen had left a letter behind addressed to the King Haakon VII of Norway, bragging of his achievement and a note asking Scott to deliver it for him. That day Scott wrote in his journal, “Great God, this is an awful place!” 

(Note: On their return from the Antarctic, Scott and his party of five, pulling sledges by hand, beset by illness, hunger and blizzards, all died. Their bodies and diaries were found by a search party eight months later. Scott was posthumously knighted. Glory comes at a high price!)

taken from

The Adirondack Journal

Turning Back The Pages

by Jean Hadden

Prodigal boy returns home

100 years ago

#Burnis Combs, a young man from Warrensburgh of agreeable personality, keen mind and ready wit, arrived home Oct. 24, 1911 from an extended trip through the west and also in the south, where he visited New Orleans.

#Young Combs, sometime before he was old enough to vote, developed a sure case of wanderlust, and with several companions he made a trip west. For months, he worked at his trade, expert shirt ironer, in St. Louis and before his return, he explored some of the large cities and towns in that area.

#Early last summer, accompanied by Iman Cahill, he went to Indianapolis where both secured employment in a large laundry. This prodigal son has finally come home at last and will stay home with his Pa all this coming winter.

taken from

The Adirondack Journal

Turning Back The Pages

by Jean Hadden

Motherless girl drinks acid

The Adirondack Journal (the newspaper of the north country) visits our home once a week with news that might appeal to us.  There is one section titled Turning Back The Pages I find most interesting.  Most of the stories are quite sad, yet I find them comical.  Others are interesting and I find myself wondering about the individual and what they were thinking. I am intrigued by the wording, the choice of words and how life was viewed 100 years ago. You too might find these stories I post most interesting. 

100 years ago 

#Driven to desperation by constant brooding over her lonely condition, Miss Rose L. Hewitt, a 20-year-old motherless girl, who formerly lived in Warrensburgh, committed suicide in Glens Falls Dec. 9, 1911 by drinking half an ounce of carbolic acid.

#She took the fatal dose shortly after 6 p.m. at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Pelletier, 3 Washington St., where she boarded. In spite of all that Dr. G.A. Chapman and Dr. Virgil D. Selleck could do for her, she died two hours later.

#The girl had been melancholy for some time. Several times she had been heard to say, “Well, they are all gone and I want to go too,” evidently referring to her mother and brother who died some time ago.

#Her father is living in Herkimer and her two brothers, William and George Hewitt live there also. Another brother, Freeman Hewitt lives in Seattle, Wa. The family members are natives of Thurman and moved to that place from Warrensburgh 10 years ago to take residence in Burnhamville near the paper mill. After the death of the mother, the girl was left in the care of her aunt, Mrs. Scott Ross. For a time she was employed at the Warrensburgh Shirt Factory before she moved to Glens Falls about three years ago to work in the Leggett Box Company’s plant on Maple St.

#When Mrs. Pelletier went to Rose’s room to call her for supper, she discovered her lying across her bed in a semi-conscious condition with a small bottle in her hand. This is the second time that Rose has taken carbolic acid within six months, the former act was discovered in time to save her life.

#There is a persistent rumor that the girl committed suicide because of being jilted by a young man who had paid her considerable attention until recently.

#The funeral was held at the Pelletier home and the body was taken to Warrensburgh for burial in the village cemetery by the side of her mother in the family plot.

taken from

The Adirondack Journal

Turning Back The Pages

by Jean Hadden