June 30: On this date in 1862, Captain John Henry Coster of Company F, 1st New York Infantry, was severely wounded in the jaw and captured at Glendale, Virginia; he was held at Libby Prison in Richmond for several weeks before being released.
June 29: Ole Singstad, engineer of the Holland, Lincoln, Brooklyn-Battery, and Mid-Town Tunnels, died on this date in 1969.
June 28: In 1838, on this date, Green-Wood Cemetery signed an agreement with six farm owners, Wycoff, Schermerhorn, Sackett, Ibbotson, Dean, and Bergen, to purchase their property–175 acres–for a “rural burying-ground.”
June 27: On this date in 1862, Captain William Tew Partridge of the 5th New York Infantry, after fighting heroically, was shot through the heart and killed at the Battle of Gaines Mill.
June 26: On this date in 1852, William M. (Boss) Tweed purchased Green-Wood lot 6054 for his Americus 6 Volunteer Fire Company.
Over my years, I have learned that often one thing leads to another. That happened again recently. A few months ago I purchased a carte de visite photographic portrait on the front of which was written, “Alexr. Saeltzer. Archt.” I recognized that name as that of a 19th-century New York City architect (who designed the … Read more
June 25: Charles Tyson Yerkes, who played key roles in the development of The Loop in Chicago and the London Underground, was born on this date in 1837 and died in 1905.
June 24: Leading cowboy silent screen movie star William Surrey Hart died on this date in 1946.
June 23: Architect James Renwick, Jr., who designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Grace Church, as well as Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian Castle and Renwick Gallery, died on this date in 1895.
June 22: Lieutenant Alexander Forbes, dispatched by New York City’s Council to retrieve the bodies of New York soldiers who had died and been buried in Mexico, did so, only to die of disease in New Orleans, on his way back, on this date in 1848.