January 8: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1925, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Women have more than realized their highest political hopes in Texas. Besides having a woman governor-elect, in the person of Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson, the spectacle was witnessed today of three women lawyers sitting as special judges and chief justice of the State Supreme Court in Austin. They are Miss Nellie Robertson of Granbury, chief justice; Mrs. Edith A. Wilmans of Dallas, and Mrs. Hortense Ward of Houston, associate justices. The opportunity for the appointment of these women to the Supreme bench came to Governor Pat M. Neff when the three regular members of the court certified to him their disqualifications to sit in the case of Johnson vs. Darr, on application for writ of error from El Paso. The suit involved litigation by trustees of the White Mountain Cattle Company to secure reversal of the decision of the Appellate Court at El Paso and the affirmation of the District Court of that city on land held by F.P. Jones, alleged by Jones and others to belong to the Tornillo Camp, Woodmen of the World. Widespread interest among lawyers especially was taken in the innovation of the Supreme Court bench being occupied by women. The courtroom was filled with men and women when the case was called for hearing.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “Mrs. Herbert Hoover, 68-year-old wife of the former President, died of a heart attack in their fashionable Waldorf Towers suite last night while dressing for dinner. Mr. Hoover, 31st President of the United States, was with her at the time. They came here Dec. 13 from their home at Palo Alto, Cal., to spend the holidays. Their two sons, Herbert Jr., a radio engineer, and Allan, a rancher, were notified in California and left immediately for New York. Mrs. Hoover, the former Lou Henry, was born at Waterloo, Iowa, in 1875 and would have been 69 on March 29. The tall, white-haired former First Lady had been a constant companion of Mr. Hoover ever since they met in 1898 on the campus of Leland State University, where both were studying geology. They were married the following year and spent their honeymoon in China, where Mr. Hoover, as a young engineer, had been appointed adviser on mining to the Chinese Government … The death of Mrs. Hoover left five surviving wives of former Presidents. They are Mrs. Thomas J. Preston, the former Mrs. Grover Cleveland; Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, Mrs. Benjamin Harrison and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge.”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.