100 years ago in The Saratogian

Wednesday, Aug. 22, 1917

A thwarted bomb plot at the American Hide & Leather tannery in Ballston Spa proves to be a hoax, The Saratogian reports, and the watchman who discovered the plot is arrested for making up the story.

“Since the beginning of the war in Europe a number of extra watchmen have been employed at the tannery as the company manufactures leather that is used by the allies,” a Ballston Spa correspondent writes. The tannery’s strategic importance only increased after the American declaration of war on Germany last April.

At 12:30 a.m. the tannery’s night foreman hears two gunshots outside. Moments later, watchman Charles Cobb brings in three sticks of dynamite.

“He claimed he saw a man prowling around and fired at him [and] that the man in his hurry to get away dropped the explosive,” but constable James J. O’Brien doesn’t buy Cobb’s story.

Under intense questioning Cobb admits the hoax. “He said he brought the dynamite from his farm several days ago and had it on his mind for some time to get up the scare. Arraigned later this morning, he faces a police court hearing tomorrow.

DODGE V. O’BRIEN

James J. O’Brien’s role as a special investigator for the district attorney’s office has been strongly criticized recently by Saratoga County Sheriff William J. Dodge, accuses O’Brien of wasting taxpayers’ money by conducting redundant investigations, sometimes after Dodge or his deputies have already solved a crime.

Former district attorney Lawrence B. McKelvey, now a county judge, came to O’Brien’s defense last week, telling the board of supervisors that Dodge’s deputies were incompetent political appointees. The sheriff replies to McKelvey in a public letter published today.

“Some folks, especially the fellows who pay the bills, are wondering what crime it is to seek information as to the activity and bills of O’Brien, and have urged upon me to object against the thousands of dollars that O’Brien is taking out of the county and the towns in ways never before found necessary,” Dodge writes.

“Constable O’Brien goes into the police affairs of the cities of Saratoga Springs and Mechanicville, where they have well organized police departments, putting in more bills therefore on the county. He goes into towns where constables and deputies are fully able to take care of their own simple police duties, and injects himself into their Justices’ courts, taking fees which should go to local constables.”

Dodge concedes that his deputies are political appointees “to a certain extent,” but “there may be a lot of politics” behind the Republican McKelvey’s patronage of O’Brien, a Democrat.