An early-morning joy ride along Ponfield Road turned into a terrible tragedy on Saturday as a group of young Bronxville men lost control of their car and it ran into a telephone pole. When police and onlookers arrived on the scene, six of the seven boys were seemingly dead. The force of impact must have […]
Queen Elizabeth Ate from Margaret Biddle’s Plates
When Queen Elizabeth II attended a white-tie dinner at the White House in 2007, she ate her Maryland crab and chorizo pozole from flatware given to the White House by Margaret Thompson Biddle upon her death in 1956. Same with Prince Phillip, who was also there. The gold-plated plates and utensils came from a priceless 1575-piece […]
Elizabeth Boner’s Close Cousin Went Down With the Titanic
Going through some old family photographs, I stumbled on the one to the left–a picture of a young Elizabeth Boner, my great grandmother, posing with her cousin, Walter Clark. My mother always said that Bessie Boner (1878-1954), whose mother died when she was seven, was raised by “the Clarks,” and by that she probably meant […]
Getting On Anna Wilson’s Good Side: A Children’s Tale
It’s story time, children. Gather round and let uncle Boyce tell you a captivating tale about personal hygiene, courtship, frontier values, and addiction–all among your ancestors in the early 1800s.
The Magnate Bought His Massive Mineral Collection on Impulse
“Tiffany’s have a collection of minerals on exhibition,” William Boyce Thompson told his staff chemist Fred J. Pope one morning in 1916. “I want you to take a look at it. I may buy it.” A half hour later, he asked Pope whether he had been to Tiffany’s. Pope said “no,” apparently not sensing the […]
Boyce Thompson: Last Drop-Kicker in Westchester County
My father, Boyce Thompson, Sr. (1932-2009) was the last person to drop-kick extra points for his high school team in Westchester County, N.Y., one of many claims to fame for a great high school athlete who never lost his youthful enthusiasm. Drop-kicking, of course, gave way to place-kicking after the football was redesigned to give it […]
Hunt for Homes Built by J.E. Thompson Turns Into Wild Goose Chase
Great grandfather Joseph Edward Thompson must have wanted future generations to find the homes he built as a young man in Bisbee, Arizona, in 1905-06. Why else would he have paid an architect to brand them with his initials, J.E.T.? Unfortunately, the J.E.T. brand, which was painted on the homes, was nowhere to be found on a recent […]
Hidden Evidence Proves the Kruttschnitts Did Actually Live in Tucson House
By the time Patti Toci and her husband bought the Julius Kruttschnitt, Jr. house in Tucson, previous owners had taken virtually everything the family had left behind. Then, one day in the 1960s, a remodeling crew opened a plaster wall and discovered a small piece of uncrumpled paper behind the lathe. “It was a receipt,” […]