“Wolf Killed in Gramercy Park” was an arresting headline in November 1894. Its smaller print supplied the essential qualification: the incident was said to have happened about eighty years earlier, before the Park existed.
The brief Sun report concerned a letter from Nicholas Fish to the president of the Board of Aldermen. Fish wanted a search of the city records for a certificate made by his grandfather, also Nicholas Fish, concerning a wolf killed at the spot later occupied by Samuel J. Tilden’s residence.
A request for evidence
The newspaper said that the elder Fish had certified the killing under an aldermanic bounty system. What it actually documented in 1894, however, was the descendant’s request to find that record. The clipping does not reproduce the certificate or supply an exact date for the event.
That distinction makes the small notice especially interesting. It shows an earlier New Yorker doing the same work as a neighborhood historian today: following a remembered story back toward a document. It also asks the reader to picture the Tilden mansion’s familiar corner before the houses, fence and garden gave it their present meaning.
The story describes an 1894 request for an earlier record; it does not reproduce that record. The report gives the elder Fish’s aldermanic years as 1806–1817. Its “eighty years” is approximate and should not be converted into an exact date. The scan also contains two unrelated notices below the article.
Paragraph breaks and line-end hyphenation have been adjusted for reading. Original wording and period language are retained; editorial additions appear in square brackets.
WOLF KILLED IN GRAMERCY PARK. That Was Eighty Years Ago, and Alderman Mr. Fish Testified to the Death.
Col. McClellan, President of the Board of Aldermen, received a letter yesterday from Nicholas Fish asking that the records of the Board of Aldermen be searched in order to find the certificate of the death of a wolf. The writer’s grandfather, Nicholas Fish, was an Alderman from 1806 to 1817. The Board of Aldermen at that time passed a resolution offering to pay $5 to every person who killed a wolf, and Alderman Fish was asked by a wolf slayer to certify to the killing of a wolf on the spot now occupied by the late Samuel J. Tilden’s residence in Gramercy Park. Alderman Fish had the occurrence recorded, and now his descendant wants a copy of the record.
Source & image credits
“Wolf Killed in Gramercy Park.” The Sun, November 27, 1894, p. 7. Newspaper clipping supplied to the GPBA research collection. The source scan is reproduced without changes to its contents.
