From the Files of the Hurleyville Sentinel: July 2020

FROM THE FILES OF THE HURLEYVILLE SENTINEL

Compiled by Sullivan County Historian John Conway
July 11, 1917
County Suffrage Convention at Liberty Next Tuesday
The Sullivan County Branch of the New York State Women’s Suffrage Party will hold its annual convention in the large hall of the Memorial Building, Liberty on Tuesday, July 17. Mrs. Luther Payne of Liberty and her committee of arrangements has made every effort to ensure a successful convention and to extend the hospitality of Liberty to the delegates and visitors from every corner of the county and to the officers of the state and district organizations who will speak.
A large attendance is expected as Suffrage enthusiasm in Sullivan County seems to be growing phenomenally, due to the changed attitude towards women’s service caused by the war and also to the efficient work of Miss Alida Brooks of Orange County, State Suffrage Organizer, who has brought the number of Suffrage clubs in Sullivan up to twenty-one, the largest number of such clubs in any assembly district in the Ninth District.
Miss C W Montgomery of Wurtsboro, Suffrage leader of Sullivan County, who will preside at the convention, is working tirelessly for votes for women and expects her county to poll a good majority for suffrage on November 6th.
Among recent activities of the county suffragists is the efficient help they gave in taking the State Military Census. 151 volunteer women enumerators mustered by the county Suffrage Party, worked in 37 election districts. Everywhere, the county suffragists are working in gardens and kitchens to produce and preserve additional food supply. It is reported that one of the Sullivan Suffragists tends a post office, house and garden and has knitted seven sweaters and five pairs of wristlets for the soldiers. Mrs. Merceine Skinner, whose husband is on the Men’s Advisory Board of the New York State Women’s Suffrage Party, and her committee made the second annual ball of the Wurtsboro Suffrage Club the greatest social event of the county as well as a financial success. Centerville has also given a successful suffrage ball recently.

July 18, 1917
Local and Personal Items
The Women’s Political Club was organized in Hurleyville Saturday afternoon at the home of Mrs. Leslie H Prince, by Miss Alida Brooks of Montgomery, organizer of the Women Suffrage Clubs of Sullivan County. The following officers were elected: Mrs. Will. M. Prince, President; Mrs. Leslie H. Prince, Vice President; Mrs. Minnie Knapp, Secretary and Treasurer.

July 2, 1937
Jury Lists for Town of Fallsburgh May Also Include Women
Women may serve as jurors in Sullivan County during the ensuing year if the Town of Fallsburgh can clear up questions relating to eligibility. Mortimer Michaels, Town Clerk, stated that an attempt would be made to include women when the jury list is prepared sometime during the week of July fifth. Conversations he had had with the Town Supervisor and tax assessors, who will prepare the list with the Town Clerk indicated all in favor of the effort, he said.
No other town in Sullivan County has expressed desire or intention to put women on the jury list.
[New York State adopted legislation allowing women to serve on trial juries effective September 1, 1937.]
Car Kills Man Walking on Road; Driver Not Held
Gabriel Amuck, sixty, was killed at eleven o’clock Monday night on the Fallsburgh-Woodbourne Road just within the village limits of South Fallsburg when he was struck by a sedan owned and operated by Seymour Levine of the Bronx. Witnesses said Amuck, apparently intoxicated, was walking in a northward direction away from the village in the center of the road when the car approached him, traveling southward.
Levine, in a vain effort to avoid hitting the man, swerved sharply to the right and ran off the road. The car hit a tree and the driver was bruised and cut on the left arm. The accident victim was employed as a handyman in a hotel in Fallsburgh and had several times been convicted and fined on charges of public intoxication, the last time having been Sunday.
No charge has been made against Levine.

July 9, 1937
Sullivan and Ulster Not Included in new Hotel Law
Summer or resort hotels in Sullivan or Ulster County will not be affected by the new state law, effective July 1 which limits hotel workers to a forty-eight hour week of six days. Charles Golembe, president of the Mountain Hotelmen’s Federation of Sullivan and Ulster, said that the law applies only to year-round hotels in cities or villages of more than 15,000 population.

Young Democrats of the Town of Fallsburgh to Organize
A meeting for the organization and election of officers of the Young Democratic League for the Township of Fallsburgh will be held at the Community Center, South Fallsburg, on Thursday evening, July 15 at eight o’clock, Daylight Savings Time. This club will endeavor, through various activities, to enlighten the young and embryonic voters of the political and social conditions of our town and county, as well as our state and nation.
The meeting will be called to order by the Chairman, Postmaster William Toohey of Hurleyville.