100 years ago

Friday, Sept. 13, 1918. A collision between two cars on a bridge between Saratoga Springs and Ballston Spa sends one of the vehicles off an embankment, but no one is hurt in the encounter.

Neither of the drivers is local. A Massachusetts vehicle is heading south while a Quebec cat is heading north when they converge on the dry bridge above the Delaware & Hudson and Schenectady railroad tracks this afternoon. While the Quebec driver stops at the bridge, the Massachusetts driver takes a dangerous curve too fast and sideswipes the other car.

The Massachusetts car gets the worst of it, the force of the collision sending it over the embankment and down onto the tracks 25 feet below. While the car is wrecked, its driver, the sole passenger, is unhurt.

Fortunately, no trolleys are passing through as the car comes down, but several cars are held up for a time while the wreck is towed off the track.

Local Veteran Promoted

Saratoga Springs lawyer Hiram C. Todd has received a commission as a major in the Judge Advocate’s Department of the U.S. Army, with orders to report for duty “at an early date.”

Todd is a partner in the firm of Brackett, Todd, Wheat & Wait. He served with Saratoga County’s Company L of the New York National Guard Infantry regiment during the Spanish-American War of 1898, rising to the rank of captain and eventually serving as an aide to regimental commander James H. Lloyd. He volunteered his services to the government shortly after the U.S. declared war on Germany in April 1917. He does not yet know where he’ll be assigned.

Deputy Attorney General

William Rooney of Ballston Spa reports for duty today as a deputy attorney general assigned to the state department of claims. He is the second Saratoga County lawyer to hold a position under state attorney general Merton E. Lewis.

Whether Rooney will retain his position past the end of the year is unclear. Lewis is a lame duck after losing his primary bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Rooney will earn $4,200 a year, equivalent in buying power to more than $67,000 in 2018 money. For now, he is “receiving the congratulations of his friends who recognize in him a lawyer of ability and integrity.”

Voter Bribing

Local papers are reporting that Saratoga County’s Republican factions paid people to vote in the September 3 primary elections.

Mechanicville sources claim that faction leaders paid between $2 and $10 for individual votes, while proven vote recruiters could make $25 on primary day. It’s unclear one faction or both spread the money around.