100 years ago in the Record

Thursday, July 18, 1918

Former president Theodore Roosevelt passes through Troy this morning on his way to the Republican state convention in Saratoga Springs, one day after his son Quentin was reported killed in action in Europe. Roosevelt drives through the city after arriving from Albany by train. He’s accompanied by longtime Rensselaer County Republican leader Cornelius V. Collins. The Record reports this afternoon that Collins may push for the convention to endorse the former president as a compromise candidate for the party’s gubernatorial nomination. Roosevelt served as governor from 1899-1900. Later this afternoon, fire alarms and church bells begin ringing throughout the Collar City. These “conveyed glad tidings to the residents of this city, though for a time they were ignorant of the cause.” The Record office is flooded with calls asking for an explanation of the bell ringing. “So impatient were the people to gain information that those who could not reach the editorial rooms hastened to The Record building [at 5th Avenue and Broadway] to read the bulletin. As a Record staffer reads the latest bulletins from an editorial department window, the crowd learns that American troops have gone on the offensive against German forces. Official sources claim that “United States troops in France had delivered a smashing blow to the Boche, had taken a vast amount of captives, and had gained five miles on a 35 mile front.” German troops had been on the offensive since the spring, but appear to have spent themselves in the past week. “A more patriotic collection was never before seen that that which crowded the Broadway side of the The Record office,” our reporter writes, “When the news was divulged that the FrancoAmerican forces had re-captured twenty villages, a big shout went up – this by the youngsters, whose ‘ big brothers’ are probably helping to bring the war to a quick termination.” Recent reports indicate that the Troy-based 105th Infantry regiment is engaged in frontline fighting. With that possibility in mind, “Many an anxious parent stood outside … waiting to get all the information available. “The older and more somber folks applauded vociferously, but their radiant faces clearly showed, as they looked up to the windows from which the bulletins were read, that they were on the verge of bursting forth into cheers.” Some reports are too good to be true. “When it was announced that Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt was thought not to have been killed, but that he landed safely within the German lines, another cheer arose from the multitude,” our writer notes. According to yesterday’s reports, eyewitnesses saw the younger Roosevelt’s plane crash behind enemy lines.