The Historians Podcast fund drive now totals $2,675.  The yearly goal is $5,000.  Please donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/historians-podcast-2021  Or contribute by mail by making out a check to Bob Cudmore and sending to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. Thursday Podcast "8 Minutes" 

The Saratoga Race Course opens today.

Saratoga Weather

Thursday, July 15, 2021

Exhibit tells of disaster, gallows, justice

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette

More than 2,000 people died on May 31, 1889, when the South Fork Dam collapsed at Lake Conemaugh sending a wall of water and debris into Johnstown, Pennsylvania, already experiencing flooding from the Little Conemaugh and Stony Creek rivers.   

Six weeks later, a flood struck Johnstown, New York along the Cayadutta Creek.  The story of the local Johnstown flood is part of the exhibit “Once Upon a Time in Johnstown” at the Fulton County Museum to mark the 250th anniversary of Johnstown’s founding.

Joan Loveday, Fulton County Historical Society president, said in early July of 1889, “After heavy rains, the Cayadutta Creek raised eight feet in 30 minutes and the creek banks and foundations were rapidly inundated as hundreds of people gathered along the creek and bridges to watch the flood.

“Police tried in vain to move sightseers from the water's edge, when many people were dumped into the raging current. Five men died.  Four dams and seven bridges were destroyed.  Factories and skin mills along the creek were severely damaged.”

The New York Times printed this account on July 11, “This city is slowly relieving itself of the terror which came down upon it with the flood yesterday, and…wonders at the strange coincidence of name and tragedy with that of the unhappy town in Pennsylvania.” 

Tomorrow #379 July 16, 2021

An update on the design of the New York State Thruway and other stories from Tim Tielman of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo.

ORGINAL GALLOWS  

Also a part of the Johnstown exhibit at the museum is the original gallows used for hangings at the old Fulton County jail.

Loveday said, “When the Johnstown jail was renovated, I believe then Fulton County Historian Lou Decker brought the gallows to the museum and it has been in the basement.  I am told it was on display once before.  The gallows is a huge wooden beam with a hook on it.  Due to the weight of it, we have it suspended on two old glove machines covered with fabric.”

Another exhibit, featuring famous Johnstown women, tells the story of Elizabeth Van Valkenburg, born in 1799, the only woman to be hanged on the gallows on display at the museum.

Loveday said, “A very poor judge of husbands, Elizabeth chose drunkards who were child and wife beaters and non-supporters, who made her and her children's lives miserable.  After the death of her first husband who died of stomach problems, she was remarried in six months to John Van Valkenburg in 1834.

“To remedy the abuse of this husband, Elizabeth laced John's brandy with arsenic, which of course made him ill.  Suspicions were raised and when Elizabeth heard she was wanted for questioning she was found hiding in the foundation of a Kingsboro home.  She was escorted home for the night.  She ran off again with the sheriff in hot pursuit and hid in the loft of a barn.  Unfortunately, Elizabeth fell through the hay hole in the loft and broke her hip.

“When John died, Elizabeth was incarcerated in the old Johnstown jail for almost a year.  At her trial she was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.  When she signed a full confession, she confessed to killing her first husband as well. Since Elizabeth was unable to stand, the gallows had to be modified to hang her in a chair. This hanging took place January 24, 1846.  Elizabeth is buried without a headstone in the Colonial Cemetery in Johnstown.

“Sympathy ran high for poor Elizabeth, who in 1845 would have had no rights to her children or possessions, had she left her husband.  It is a sad story, but part of Johnstown's history.”

Saturday, July 17, 2021-Focus on History in the Daily Gazette-The untimely death of Nancy Booth. The Story Behind the Story Podcast next Monday, July 19, 2021

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, July 15, 2021

The Fort Plain Museum will host The American Revolution Mohawk Valley Conference, featuring 11 speakers and a bus tour, from August 6th through 8th, 2021, at Fulton-Montgomery Community College.

Fort Plain Museum’s website

Speakers include:

A Fireside Chat with William M. Fowler, Jr. and Guest Host Christian Di Spigna – Revolution Breaks-Out in Boston and it’s the Usual Suspects, Adams, Hancock, Warren, Revere, and others;

Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy – The Architect of the British War for America: Lord George Germain;

Eric H. Schnitzer – The Value of Revisionism: Don Troiani’s Campaign to Saratoga – 1777 John Knight – Banastre Tarleton and the British Legion: The Elite Loyalist Regiment Fighting for the King;

Todd W. Braisted – In Reduced Circumstances: Loyalist Women and British Government Assistance, 1779-1783
Katie Turner Getty – Escape from New York! American Prisoners of War and the Jails and Prison Ships of New York;

Wade P. Catts & Robert A. Selig – The Battles of Stone Arabia and Klock’s Field, October 19, 1780: A Study;

James E. Richmond – War on the Middleline: The Founding of a Community in the Kayaderosseras Patent in the Midst of the American Revolution; and

Wayne Lenig – Fort Plain, Fort Plank and Fort Rensselaer: the Revolutionary War Fortifications at Canajohary.

The bus tour, set for August 6th will feature the Stone Arabia and Klock’s Battlefield Historic Sites, following the avenues of approach, a viewing of the battle areas, a visit to the historic churches burned in battle, the sites of Forts Kayser & Paris, several farms that were burned, a stop at the Palatine Church that was spared the torch. Similar stops are also planned for Klock’s Battlefield. A lunch stop will be included.

The conference will be held at the Visual Arts & Communications Building (Campus Map Building #2) on the Fulton-Montgomery Community College’s campus, located at 2805 NY-67, in Johnstown.

Daily Gazette

Thursday, July 15, 2021