Yesteryear
100 years ago

Reports of large losses of chickens and poultry have been about Red Bank and the Freehold vicinity this past fall and winter, and invariably the loss was laid at some unknown night prowler’s door. It was ascertained by the Red Bank police that someone of that place had been disposing of poultry to Long Branch dealers at ridiculously low prices. A few days since the Red Bank men informed their Long Branch customers that they expected a shipment soon and if in need of poultry they could address a Beach Street, Red Bank, location.

Gen. Benjamin F. Rankle, superintendent of the New Jersey Military Academy in Freehold, who took charge of the school last September, has resigned that position and left for Washington, D.C., this morning. Gen. Rankle is a thoroughly competent instructor and many here in Freehold have had the pleasure of listening to his eloquent and instructive lectures while here. Gen. Rankle and Col. Wright each have their own ideas of discipline. Gen. Rankle is opposed to all kinds of discipline, relying in his management of a school in appeals to the honor and manhood of his subjects. Col. Wright and Gen. Rankle have agreed to disagree, and Gen. Rankle tendered his resignation to the War Department in Washington.

Some little excitement was caused last Saturday morning by what was taken to be a dog suffering from hydrophobia. The "mad" dog was little Tiny, the pet English toy terrier belonging to a South Street resident in Freehold. The dog acted strangely about the blacksmith shop of W.A. Hankinson, trying to bite a dog there. It did, after many attempts, succeed in biting the dog slightly, and Mr. Hankinson kicked him from the place. The dog then went on South Street, chasing several dogs and chasing another pet dog until it succeeded in biting that. Going to Main Street, it bit a dog belonging to Frank Muldoon, and afterward bit a dog in front of Muldoon’s store. George Vandervoort procured a rifle and followed the animal up Court Street to the monument. [After a while], Vandervoort intercepted the dog coming from behind a house on Court Street. He shot the dog on a run, hitting it just above the heart, the ball passing entirely through the body. The dog continued running about 15 yards and jumped into the air and fell over dead.

75 years ago

The budget for the current year for Freehold Borough, as passed on first and second readings at a previous meeting, was adopted on third and final reading by the Mayor and Council Monday night. The budget aggregates $106,165.34, with $65,500 to be raised by taxation.

Automobile thieves who have been making Monmouth County their field of operations during the past few weeks visited Freehold early Sunday morning and got safely away with a new Chrysler sedan from the garage of R. and C. Motor Company on Center Street. The car was taken while William R. Cottrell, a member of the firm, and his wife slept soundly on the second floor of the garage and immediately over the department from which the car was stolen. Dr. William T. Robinson, the other member of the garage firm, was on the high seas, having sailed Saturday on the steamship Homeric for a Mediterranean cruise. The car was stolen between 2 a.m. and 2:45 a.m. It is believed that the thieves were in the garage at work long before that time and, in all probability, when Mr. and Mrs. Cottrell arrived home at 12:45 a.m. and Mr. Cottrell made a cur­sory inspection of the interior of the garage, passing immediately in front of the automobile that was stolen less than three hours later. [At one point], Officer John Green drove past the garage in a police car and all of the doors of the garage were closed. At 2:45 he found the garage doors open and the car gone. Summoning Mr. Cottrell it was at once learned that a car valued at $1,400 had been stolen.

50 years ago

Mayor Theodore J. Narozanick of Englishtown named Raymond B. Vanderhoef Sr. municipal disaster control director at the meeting of the Civil Defense Council on Monday night in Englishtown. Deputies named by Vanderhoef were Police Chief Henry M. Narozanick and Police Commissioner Earl Brown. Other members are Robert Bloom, medical; Raphael Zackowitz, engineering; and Mrs. Rita Jeffries, public relations. Mayor Narozanick, former chairman of the Civil Defense Council, outlined the functions of the municipality under the state disaster control plan proclaimed by Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll on Jan. 14. The plan covers peacetime as well as wartime emergencies which are under the jurisdiction of the original Civil Defense Councils.

25 years ago

The Congressional cutback late last year in anti-recession funds and termination of the program for this year has forced counties and municipalities to cut back on services and possibly lay off employees whose continued employment was the primary goal of the federal program. Anti-recession funding was intended to stop county and local government from adding to their areas’ unemployment by allowing them to rehire, or not to have to lay off employees. Termination of the program was supposedly the result of a substantial improvement in the national employment picture. One municipal official, however, expressed the opinion that Congress was influenced by the passage of the tax-reducing Proposition 13 in California and its message to all governments to reduce spending. The cutback in anti-recession funds in Monmouth County is creating problems with the county budget, according to County Administrator Theodore J. Narozanick.

— Compiled by Dick Metzgar