history Archives - Leader Observer

This Retired Jockey Has Many Stories To Tell

Ed Wendell on August 23, 2023

Woodhaven native and longtime jockey Alfred J. “Rocky” Hanan (white shirt, center) and fans gathered at Neir’s Tavern this week for a celebration of the sport of horse racing. Rocky entertained the crowd with tales on and off the track, including a memorable encounter with the legendary Mae West.

By Ed Wendell | projectwoodhaven@gmail.com

Woodhaven has a wonderful pedigree in horse racing dating back to 1821, when the Union Course racetrack opened (after 2 decades of horse racing being illegal in New York State). Within 2 years, a crowd of over 60,000 people came to Woodhaven to view and bet on the outcome of the race between American Eclipse and Sir Henry.

The hero of that story was the jockey who rode Eclipse to victory, a man named Samuel Purdy. He took over the reins for the 2nd and 3rd heat that day and his maneuver during the last lap of the second heat to take the lead was discussed and praised by horse racing fans for decades.

This week, Woodhaven’s grand history of horse racing gained another chapter, and another character, when Alfred J. “Rocky” Hanan came to Neir’s Tavern for a “Night at the Races.” Hanan, a Woodhaven native who was a jockey for many decades, entertained the crowd with tales on and off the track.

Rocky was a small lad for 13 years old, just 80 pounds soaking wet. He was on the street with some pals, smoking, when two men told him to get rid of the cigarette. Rocky was a bit of a wiseguy and told them where to get off.

The two men, brothers as it turned out, sized the young man up and saw potential. They spoke to young Rocky’s mother and confirmed that he was only 13.

“We have connections with people at the race track,” they told her, “and we might be able to get him a spot with a good outfit.”

By the time Rocky was 14 he was riding for Greentree Stud and Stable, a very successful thoroughbred racing and breeding stable. And that was what Rocky did for decades, before retiring and becoming a horse trainer, something he still does now in his 80s.

Rocky spoke to the crowd at Neir’s about the thrill of riding a horse and his affection for the sport. “”It was a love that you can’t beat,” he said. “It was never a job, it was fun; it was wonderful!”

Rocky brought along a suitcase full of racing memories, including his racing cap, colors, a whip and goggles, which was a necessity when it rained.

“When it rained hard, you’d wear 4 or 5 pairs of goggles at once. And as you’re going round those turns, and the horses in front of you are kicking up that mud, you had to reach up with one finger and pull down one pair, leaving you with a few more clean pairs covering your eyes. And you’re doing this with your hands full, in the pouring rain, on a horse running at full speed!”
Rocky spoke lovingly of horses, but none more than Secretariat, who he never rode, but said was the nicest, classiest and smartest horse he’d ever witnessed.

“I’ve never seen a horse in my entire life like Secretariat. I would have given anything just to sit on him! And he was a smart horse; he watched everything around him. He’d be grazing and a plane would fly high overhead, and he’d pick his head up and follow the plane with his eyes!”

As a longtime resident of Woodhaven, Rocky had the pleasure of meeting one of its most famous residents, though he didn’t know it at the time.

“I was 8 years old and on Saturdays I’d go door to door collecting for the Long Island Press. One day, I’m at a house on 88th Street and a lady opens the door and tells me to come in. Turns out she had a house full of people and she brought me in and said to them ‘Ooh, isn’t he cute, look at the size of him!”

Alfred J. “Rocky” Hanan and Loycent Gordon, owner of Neir’s Tavern, celebrating the sport of horse racing in Woodhaven, right across the street from where the famed Union Course Racetrack used to sit (1821-1870).

As he was leaving the house, the woman paid the bill and gave him a dollar tip, which was a lot of money for a kid back then. “I thought I was a millionaire!” he said.

Only later on, did he find out whose house that was, and who gave him the dollar, it was none other than Mae West!

Life is like a horse race, you never know what’s going to happen. A chance encounter on the street led to a lifetime of love and thrills for a local boy from Woodhaven and he has no regrets.
“If I had to live ten more lifetimes I’d do it all over again!” Rocky said.

The Unconventional Boxing Instructor

glendaleregstg on August 16, 2023

Professor Yoerger with Trixie – “the dog with the mind of a child” and Skippy.

By Ed Wendell | projectwoodhaven@gmail.com

George Yoerger’s future was set when a muscular stranger with a handlebar mustache walked on to his farm in East Norwalk, Connecticut and inquired about renting the family’s barn.

“I’m John L. Sullivan,” the man said, introducing himself. “I’m champion of the world.” The legendary Sullivan, aka The Boston Strong Boy, was the first heavyweight champ. He spent the next few months training on the Yoerger farm, and young George soon knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

Inside the ring he was a tough fighter, but his true calling was outside the ring, where he became a well-respected boxing and self-defense instructor. At the turn of the century, he moved to Brooklyn with his wife Minnie and opened a gymnasium at Broadway and Myrtle which was an almost immediate success. Dubbing himself “Professor” Yoerger, he lured in customers with the promise: “Six lessons free if you hit me on the nose!”

But while he was busy training pupils how to box, Minnie began to get cozy with one of his friends and the neighbors began to talk. One approached Yoerger with these suspicions and one night he and two private detectives burst into their apartment and found his friend hiding in the bedroom.

Yoerger sued his friend for $100,000 for alienation of affection and the trial made scandalous headlines for several months.

He returned to the headlines several years later when a small gang of thugs tried to rough him up for some money and a blue diamond he had in his possession. They failed to see the flaw in their plan and the Professor of boxing whipped the bunch of them and called the police. Another public trial followed, and Professor Yoerger was hailed a hero.

Professor Yoerger Ad for his services (with his picture).

Later in life he met a much younger woman and they fell in love. The woman was Florence Lott, whose family was among some of the earliest residents of Woodhaven, many of whom are still buried in the Colonial Era Wyckoff-Snedicker Family Cemetery (on 96th Street in Woodhaven).

They moved into Lott’s family home on Lott Avenue (named for the family, and today known as 76th Street), a few hundred feet south of Jamaica Avenue, where it still stands today.

Yoerger semi-retired from the boxing profession and closed the gym in Brooklyn (though he opened a small private gymnasium in the backyard of his home in Woodhaven). Since training was still in his blood, he embarked on a second career – training dogs. He started his training with his own dog, Trixie, who he would take out for paid exhibitions.

Trixie’s most popular trick was to sit at a table, open a menu, select a meal, go through the motions of eating and when finished, wiping her face with her paw.

Trixie was advertised as the dog “with the mind of a child,” and with each public appearance, his renown as a dog trainer grew, and this business flourished as well. He was commissioned to write several newspaper articles giving owners advice with their dogs and his fame was such that he and Trixie were asked to take part in a dog show at the Jamaica Arena to help raise funds for the Helen Keller Free Clinic.

Helen Keller herself attended the show and it was said that she affectionately pet many of the hundreds of children and their dogs that took part in the show. She told one reporter that if she was to be granted but a single split-second of sight that she would choose to see “a child and its dog.”

Florence Lott, the Professor’s 2nd wife and a member of one of Woodhaven’s most prominent early families.

In his later years, Yoerger added fencing, trick pistol shooting, and diamond appraising to his activities, also finding time to found the Long Island Society of Magicians. In 1949, Professor Yoerger (by now in his 80s) appeared on television, providing commentary for live bouts being broadcast from the boxing arena at Ridgewood Grove.

Professor George Yoerger would pass away in 1951 shortly after his 84th birthday (his young wife Florence would outlive him by over twenty years, passing away in late 1973). He had a long, remarkable life, and it’s even more remarkable when you discover the fact that he was deaf his entire life.

Professor George Yoerger was a colorful character and you can learn more about him and other interesting people from our community’s rich history at twice monthly meetings of the Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society (at Neir’s Tavern, 78th Street and 88th Avenue, at 7 p.m. on the 3rd Monday of every month and on Zoom at 8 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month. Email us at woodhavenhistory@gmail.com for more information and to get on our mailing list.

Forest Park Carousel Connects Generations

Ed Wendell on July 26, 2023

For close to a century, the Carousel in Forest Park has been part of the rituals of growing up in Woodhaven, Glendale, Richmond Hill, and many of the other nearby neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn. In many families, several generations have fond memories of riding on the carousel as children before passing along the tradition by taking their own children or grandchildren for their first ride.

By Ed Wendell | projectwoodhaven@gmail.com

In this two part series, we look at the Forest Park Carousel, which was designated as a New York City Landmark 10 years ago, in 2013.

In many families, several generations have fond memories of riding on the carousel as children before passing along the tradition by taking their own children or grandchildren for their first ride. The Forest Park Carousel is not only a fun ride, but also a beautiful and historically significant piece of work.

Nearly all the figures were created by the hands of legendary Master Carver Daniel C. Muller, a crucial factor in the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission’s decision to designate the Forest Park Carousel a New York City Landmark in 2013.

To gain a better understanding of Muller, we need to start with Gustav Dentzel who had learned the craft of carousel-building from his father Michael in Germany and immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1864. Though he initially took up trade as a cabinetmaker, in 1867 he began the G.A. Dentzel Steam and Horsepower Carousel Builder Company.

Dentzel’s firm completed an average of four full carousels a year, some of the earliest carousels in the United States.

One of Dentzel’s carvers was also a close friend, John Heinrich Muller. When Mueller died suddenly, Dentzel raised his surviving two teenage sons as his own. The brothers, Daniel and Alfred, joined the Dentzel family business in 1890 and began carving carousel figures.

One of the many menagerie carvings by legendary Master Carver Daniel C. Muller on our Forest Park Carousel, which celebrates its 10th anniversary of being named a New York City Landmark this summer.

Although both brothers were talented carvers, it was Daniel C. Muller (born in 1872) who truly shone, honing his craft at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. D. C. Muller’s carvings were notable for being very beautiful and realistic. He was also known for militaristic carvings with horses sporting bugles, swords and canteens.

In 1903, the brothers left Dentzel and started their own company, D.C. Muller Brothers Carousel Manufacturing Company, a much smaller shop than Dentzel ran. The Mullers only managed to build 12 carousels over 14 years with much of the delays attributed to Muller’s attention to detail.

The Mullers closed the shop in 1917 and rejoined their former company, which had been run by William Dentzel since his father Gustav’s passing in 1909. They remained with the Dentzels until William passed away and the company folded in 1928 as the Golden Age of Carousels in America came to a close.

And that brings us to the Forest Park Carousel. In the early days of Forest Park, the golf course was much larger, covering all the land down to what is known today as Park Lane South. All the land that the Forest Park Carousel sits on today, plus all the area surrounding it, was originally part of the golf course.

The residents of Woodhaven complained and in 1923 the Parks Department reduced the size of the golf course and the land that was freed up was set aside as public park space. It was at that time that Forest Park began to more closely resemble the park we know today.

Plans for playgrounds, a concrete bandstand, tennis courts and a carousel were announced. It’s hard to imagine, but residents of Woodhaven were very opposed to the placement of a carousel so close to Woodhaven Boulevard, which was a sleepy one-lane road called Woodhaven Avenue at the time.

Construction on a building to contain the carousel finished in December 1922, in the woods, well off from Woodhaven Avenue. And by 1924, a carousel was spinning in Forest Park.

For over half a century, residents of Woodhaven and surrounding communities flocked to the Forest Park Carousel. Parents and grandparents put their children on the carousel, then sat and enjoyed the pipe organ music and the smell of hot dogs and popcorn.

Riders on the outside row of figures could try to win prizes by reaching out and grabbing rings that were suspended just out of reach. When children weren’t on the carousel, they had beautiful Forest Park to chase each other around in while their parents chatted with friends in the biergarten.

Next week, we’ll look at the next chapter in the life of our Forest Park Carousel, a story that contains tragedy as well as the tale of a Muller Carousel rising from the ashes of destruction.

History Club Remembers Beloved Horseman

Ed Wendell on July 19, 2023

Every month, a group of Woodhaven residents gather at neir’s Tavern to learn about our past and the people who lived here before us.

By Ed Wendell | projectwoodhaven@gmail.com

My dad loved to read about history. His area of special interest was the Civil War closely followed by the American Revolution. But it wasn’t just the dates and the description of events that really interested him; it was the stories about the people that lived that history that excited him.

Whenever he’d finish reading something of interest, he’d tell me about it, he’d tell me about the people involved, what they were like and what drove them. To him, the people were the main attraction, and the history was the interesting stories about what happened to them.

I found myself thinking about him last night right in the middle of a presentation I was giving at Neir’s Tavern. I was talking about the funeral of Hiram Woodruff, 156 years ago, and I knew he would have loved this story.

Hiram Woodruff was a beloved figure in Woodhaven, a famous horse trainer who had ridden and worked with all of the famous horses of that era. He was considered to be the most honest person in the horse racing business and had a circle of friends who loved and admired him.

A wicked snowstorm hit Woodhaven on the day he was to be buried atop a hill in Cypress Hills cemetery. Despite the bad weather, horsemen from all over came to Woodhaven to pay their respects to their friend whose sudden death at age 50 had taken them all by surprise.

The final resting place of Hiram Woodruff, overlooking Woodhaven. Woodruff’s friends had to carry his casket on a sled through a blizzard to get him to this spot where he had rested ever since, just one of the many interesting stories shared at meetings of the Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society.

His casket was being transported via horse and carriage but by the time they got to the cemetery, the wheels were getting stuck in the snow. His friends all tried pushing the carriage, and the horse was encouraged to pull harder, but Hiram Woodruff’s casket was not getting any closer to his final destination.

One of the men rode his horse back to Hiram Woodruff’s stables and came back with a large sled. His friends lifted the casket off of the carriage, lay it on the sled and they were able to bring him to the top of the hill where he still rests today, overlooking the stables and hotel and saloon that he owned on Jamaica Avenue.

Shortly after reading this account in an old newspaper, I paid a visit to that hill in Cypress Hills cemetery, to stand on that road and look up that hill towards the monument erected in his memory by his friends. I pictured the hill covered in deep snow, the men pushing the carriage and getting no further.

I imagined them waiting in the cold as one of them went for the sled. The longer I stood there, the more this story came to life for me. This wasn’t just about facts and dates, these were real people who were coming to life again on that hill, a century and a half after that cold snowy day.

I thought about my dad because he loved stories like this and he would have loved hearing all about it. He would have loved, as I did, seeing the kind words his friends had engraved into Woodruff’s monument.
“He was conspicuous for his genius, his unswerving integrity and his kindness of heart.”

That hill and that story and those words said a lot about how much Hiram Woodruff’s friends cared for him and I would love to sit down and tell my dad all about it. He’s been gone for 18 years now, but in his place I have been blessed by a wonderful group of people who also love these kinds of stories.

The Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society meets twice a month, once in person at Neir’s Tavern and once online via Zoom. And together we look back on the history of this great community and the people that lived that history.

It’s an amazing feeling when you meet people who not only share the same interest, but whose passion matches yours for the stories you love to hear. To everyone who comes out to these meetings every month, I am grateful and so appreciative that we, the Woodhaven Historians, are taking this journey together.

Dexter Park and Max Rosner to be Honored in Street Renaming

Ed Wendell on June 28, 2023

The stadium at Dexter Park was built in 1923 and played host to many of the greatest players in Major League Baseball and the Negro Leagues, and was the site of the first night game in baseball, 5 years before the Major Leagues. It also played host to Boxing, Wrestling, Football, Soccer, Polo and in the 1950s it was home of Stock Car racing.

By Ed Wendell

From playing host to many of the greatest players in Major League Baseball and the Negro Leagues, to being the birthplace of the great innovation of Night Baseball, there is a lot for residents of Woodhaven in to be proud of when it comes to Max Rosner and Dexter Park.

Both will be remembered fondly this Saturday, July 1st, at 11 a.m. when the corner of Dexter Court and 86th Road, where the box office of the old stadium used to sit, will be renamed in Max Rosner’s honor, with the Rosner family in attendance.

In 1892, a young man named Max Rosner immigrated to the United States from Hungary. He eventually settled down in Woodhaven, opening a Cigar Store on Jamaica Avenue near Forest Parkway that would operate very profitably for many years. He also became a resident of Woodhaven when he bought a home on 76th Street.

If that was all that Max Rosner ever did, it would be an American success story. But Rosner was no ordinary man, and his success story was far from ordinary.

As a newcomer to this country, Rosner became enamored with baseball, which was a relatively new sport at the time. He watched the local teams and eventually tried out and played shortstop for a semi-pro team.

In time, Max Rosner took over as manager of the Bushwicks, a Brooklyn-based team that played frequently at Dexter Park in Woodhaven, Queens.

Shortly after immigrating from Hungary, Max Rosner became a fan of baseball, playing shortstop for a local team and then becoming a manager. Here he is (top center) with the Paramounts in 1903; they played at Morgan and Metropolitan Avenues in Brooklyn. He would soon become manager of the Bushwicks, who played at Dexter Park here in Woodhaven.

In October of 1922 Max Rosner and partner Nat Strong purchased Dexter Park and the Bushwicks from the Ulmer Brewery for $200,000. Ulmer Brewery had been forced to cease operations due to prohibition.

Dexter Park became the home field for the Bushwicks and for the Brooklyn Royal Giants, one of the top teams in the Negro Leagues.

They began immediately to improve the ballpark, building a new concrete grandstand which increased the capacity to 13,000 (6 thousand individual seats and bleachers which accommodated 7 thousand people).

The playing field itself was one of the largest in the United States. The distance from home plate to the centerfield fence was a whopping 450 feet and only the legendary Hall of Famer Josh Gibson was able to hit one over it.

The newly remodeled stadium opened nearly 100 years ago, on April 15, 1923.
Over the years, Rosner was also well known in Woodhaven for his charitable contributions. Numerous times, Rosner donated the use of Dexter Park for benefit games to raise funds for charities, including a series of games which helped construct a new building for Jamaica Hospital.

Rosner was famous for being the first one at the ballpark every morning, often to the chagrin of his groundskeepers. He was such a beloved figure to the residents of Woodhaven that he soon became known, even in the press, as Uncle Max.

Under his ownership, Dexter Park was a prime source of entertainment for residents in Woodhaven and the neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens that surrounded it. Dexter Park wasn’t just a home for baseball; Dexter Park also hosted Boxing, Soccer, Football, Polo (with horses) and in later years, Stock Car racing.

Every year, once the Major League Baseball season was over, legendary ballplayers such as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Dizzy Dean would come to Woodhaven to play ball.
And over the years, legendary players from the Negro Leagues like Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige played right here in Woodhaven, years before the color barrier would be broken in Major League Baseball by Jackie Robinson.
Dexter Park was also famous for the introduction of night games, a full 8 years before it was adopted in the Major Leagues.
Although it was initially seen as a fad or a novelty, night baseball proved to be so popular with fans that in years to come, day games became far less frequent. Today, the majority of baseball games are played at night.
Major League baseball on television hurt many semi pro teams, the Bushwicks included. Rosner shifted gears and converted Dexter Park for Stock Car Racing. Eventually, the crowds dwindled and after Rosner passed away, the park was sold and demolished, and new homes were built on the land.

These days, many residents of Woodhaven (themselves immigrants to this country like Rosner himself) are unaware of the existence or history of Woodhaven’s stadium. We hope you will come out to honor this important piece of Woodhaven’s history.