Pelham Town Historian

Today, October 18th is the 249th anniversary of the Battle of Pelham, when four regiments of American patriots led by Colonel John Glover managed to delay the British in their march across Pelham. Vastly outnumbered, the courage, determination, and ingenuity of these American troops allowed General George Washington and the Continental Army to retreat from Manhattan north to White Plains. Without the Battle of Pelham, the American cause would have been lost just a few months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
https://pelhamtownhistorian.com/battle-of-pelham
Next year will be the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Pelham, America's Declaration of Independence, and the start of the Revolutionary War. Please send me an email or PM if interested in volunteering to work on a celebration of this semiquincentennial.

Tomorrow's annual Memorial Day Parade has been cancelled due to expected torrential rains, but the annual ceremony remembering and honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice will go on, indoors at the Manor Club. The name of William Thoman will be read among the long list of Pelhamites who gave their lives in wars to defend our country. Here is the story of how he perished in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic just shy of his 22nd birthday:

William-Thoman - Pelham Town Historian The pages of the Pelham Sun in the late 1930s are filled with mentions of the awards and accomplishments of the young boy scout, William P. Thoman. He was racking up merit badges at a rapid clip on his way to becoming an Eagle Scout in one of the seven troops of Pelham Scouts. In November 1935, he r...

I am pleased to report a new on-line database containing digitized copies of historic Pelham newspapers, including the Pelham Record (1913-14), the Pelham Sun (1910-2005), and the Pelham Weekly (1992-2001). The database can be accessed here:
https://news.hrvh.org/veridian/cgi-bin/senylrc-pelham
Most of the issues are converted from microfilm, although later issues of the Pelham Sun were digitized from hard copies. Note that this database is an on-going, work in progress as there are missing issues of the Pelham Sun that were never in our collection but where (hope springs eternal that) a copy might be located. In addition, more recent copies of the Pelham Weekly (2006-2015) are not yet included as they had never been microfilmed and, as funding becomes available, will need to be digitized through the much more expensive process of scanning hard copies.
The original hard copies of the Pelham Sun will be re-located from Pelham and preserved in the climate-controlled facilities of the Westchester County Archives in Elmsford.
Thank you to Town Supervisor Dan McLaughlin and the Pelham Town Council for making funding available to undertake this project.

HRVH Historical Newspapers HRVH Historical Newspapers provides access to digitized copies of historical newspapers from the Hudson River Valley region of New York State.

Celebrating the opening of the # # Games of the Olympiad in Tokyo and cheering on Pelham's own Kate Douglass as she competes on the Women's swim team in the 200M individual medley event.

After tracking down descendants and family members of Pelham's earliest Olympians, this is the first in a two-part web post taking a look back at past Pelham Olympians, starting with Warren Wood, a gold-medal winner on the U.S. Olympic Golf team in 1904. The quality of his character and good sportsmanship are made clear thanks to his granddaughter, Wendy Southwell Fuchs (PMHS 1965), who provided an intimate bio about him from the Pelham Country Club at the time of his passing. The accomplishments and life of 1912 Track Olympian and former Pelham resident, Carroll Haff, are documented thanks to his grandchildren who have shared with us extremely rare photos and information from his personal Olympic scrapbook.

https://www.pelhamtownhistorian.com/pelham-olympians

Pelham's First Olympians - Pelham Town Historian Pelham has always been an athletic town and, not surprisingly, has a long history of residents who competed in Olympic Games.

Happy Independence Day! What was Pelham like on the Fourth of July in 1910? Take a trip through a collection of photos from the Town Historian Collection documenting the day.

Pelham's 1910 Independence Day - Pelham Town Historian The firing of 21 guns went off at 4:30am, July 4, 1910, waking up the population of just 2844 in the small town of Pelham and commencing a day-long celebration of America’s independence.  From the size of the crowds, it seemed the whole town had turned out by the time a parade kicked off from Pel...

At Pelham's annual Memorial Day Service on Monday, Americo Colautti will be named among the long list of Pelhamites who gave their lives in wars to defend our country. Here is his story as representative of just one of the many who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the freedoms we enjoy today in the United States.

Americo Colautti - Pelham Town Historian Profile of a Pelham Hero