This evening at 7 in Hagaman, Bob Cudmore talks history

The Demskys of Amsterdam and a little about the Bob to-do list.

Passion: a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept, Thank You Webster

The Hagaman Historical Society meets at 6:30 pm at the Calvary Reformed Church, 15 Church.  Bob’s talk will be at 7 pm.  Please use the side entrance to the church.  Bob will be accepting donations for The Historians Podcast fund drive. 

Go Fund Me Goal in April $1,500.00

https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast

The Thursday Morning tally no change at $1,005.00, up $50.00 from Monday, Thank You. The need $350.00 by the close of the weekend.

U.S. Mail A check to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

“Mohawk Valley History with Bob Cudmore”

....from Gloversville

What’s it like to be the boss’s son? Rod Correll is author of the memoir “Learning to Be a Leatherman-A Rite of Passage.” Correll lived in the leather business for 50 years, from childhood up to when he left the business to return to Yale for an MBA.

An artistic gunsmith

By Bob Cudmore

A loom fixer for an Amsterdam carpet mill set up shop as a gunsmith in 1948 and then made his living building custom rifles and repairing firearms until his death in 1960.

Raymond Overbaugh, born in 1903 in the town of Florida, once told a reporter, "I always fooled around with guns in my spare time."  He worked 28 years fixing looms for Bigelow-Sanford’s Amsterdam carpet mills before opening his gun shop in a small building next to his home off Route 5 near Cranesville.  Later he moved his family and shop to Tribes Hill. 

Many American soldiers returning from World War II brought souvenir weapons home from the war, in particular Mauser rifles made for the German army.

According to a 1953 story by Truman Temple in the Daily Gazette, Overbaugh’s best selling items were deer hunting rifles converted from Mauser 8 millimeter rifles.  He turned out about 30 rifles a year plus doing repair work.

“The ‘Overbaugh Special’ is in demand all over the country by certain small arms fanatics who can pay the necessary $110 (and up) for a hand-crafted rifle that combines German precision with light handling qualities,” Temple wrote.

Overbaugh knew his hunting customers wanted a firearm much lighter than the one German soldiers carried.  He trimmed about a fourth of the weight off each Mauser and the finished product weighed seven pounds

“I just trim down the stock and take a bit of metal off here and there,” Overbaugh said.

Today, Overbaugh’s rifles are seen infrequently at gun shows and can go for $2,000 each, according to firearms fanciers.

John Del Savio, an official of the Pine Tree Rifle Club in Johnstown, said an Overbaugh rifle was known for having diamond shaped inlays, black and white.  The black inlays were made from ebony and the white inlays were ivory.  Overbaugh also put a tiny signature on the barrels of some of his guns

In the early 1950s Johnstown native David Acker and his father, gun collector Adolph Acker, used to visit Overbaugh’s shop.  It was a small space that could comfortably handle a half dozen people. 

During one visit by the Ackers a customer came in and inquired about a special firearm order.  After he left, the word was passed that the customer was Amsterdam native Kirk Douglas, home for a visit from Hollywood.

Overbaugh said in the 1953 interview that his oddest repair job was work done on two submachine guns for the Amsterdam police.  Local police carried the weapons on those days when the carpet mills paid workers in cash.  Overbaugh said police never had to fire them.

Overbaugh favored Colt automatic weapons.  He said that that the Germans made the best rifles, the British made the best shotguns and the best revolvers were made by Smith & Wesson in America. 

Reporter Temple said that Overbaugh’s shop was surrounded by tame squirrels and birds, “He walked to the door and coaxed chickadees down to feed from his hand. 

At the time of the interview, Overbaugh said he had 200 guns in his collection, including a German machine gun from World War I that he kept in the basement.  His shop was hard to find and he had toyed with the idea of painting the machine gun and putting it in front of his shop as an advertisement.  Overbaugh’s collection then also included a half dozen pistols dating from the American Revolution. 

Overbaugh’s 1960 obituary noted that he was known for artistic gun building.  His wife Olive and son George survived him.  George Overbaugh worked with his father for a number of years.  Raymond Overbaugh was buried at Amsterdam’s Fairview Cemetery.

Posted Early tomorrow, Friday, April 7, 2023 

Episode 469- Composer, choral director and pianist Maria Riccio Bryce, creator of a new work called Requiem: What Remains Is Love. 

CD recordings are available at Amsterdam Free Library.

On Friday May 26, the Requiem will be performed at St Paul’s Episcopal on Hackett Blvd in Albany

Saturday, May 27, at First Reformed on N. Church St in the Schenectady Stockade

Sunday at 3pm on May 28, at Trinity Lutheran on Guy Park Avenue in Amsterdam.

Email [email protected]

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, April 6, 2023

A chance of showers, mainly between 10am and 5pm. Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 60. Light southwest wind becoming west 9 to 14 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

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