Saturday, October 21, 2023-From the archives-January 27, 2023-Episode 459-Jerry Snyder was one of the founders of Historic Amsterdam League, which focuses on the history of Amsterdam, N.Y. 

Sunday, October 22, 2023-Focus on History-A prominent physician from rural Montgomery County

A man born in the Montgomery County town of Root went on to become a doctor and then the dean of Albany Medical College.

News from Lower Manhattan Historical Association.

This year’s Saratoga-Yorktown Celebration at Trinity Church in lower Manhattan is planned for today, Saturday, October 21, 2023 and will be preceded by a 90-minute walking tour starting at 1 pm from the Fraunces Tavern Museum and covering the route to Trinity Churchyard. Email [email protected]  for more information. 

Among American patriots buried at Trinity Churchyard are Horatio Gates, Alexander Hamilton and Marinus Willett. 

Our New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan will be the guest on Historians Podcast Episode 498 on November 10th with the story of the life of General Horatio Gates who won the Battle of Saratoga in 1777.

Bootleggers even may have used a long gone private airfield on Route 67 in the town of Amsterdam.  Residents reported nights when lighted barrels would appear along the runway during Prohibition and a plane would land, presumably carrying alcoholic beverages.

The war on alcohol in Amsterdam

By Bob Cudmore

“I can remember my Dad telling stories of him and buddies running illegal liquor from Johnstown into Amsterdam during Prohibition,” wrote a reader who only identified himself as Ralph.  “Would you be able to dig up more information and details on this seldom talked about occupation?”

In “Annals of a Mill Town,” historian Hugh Donlon wrote, “Amsterdam rum runners regularly hit the approved back roads toward Hamilton County and through the Adirondacks to provide supposedly discerning customers with supposedly genuine Canadian products.”

Bootleggers even may have used a long gone private airfield on Route 67 in the town of Amsterdam.  Residents reported nights when lighted barrels would appear along the runway during Prohibition and a plane would land, presumably carrying alcoholic beverages.

At home, people made wine, beer and even hard liquor.  Actor Kirk Douglas wrote in his autobiography “The Ragman’s Son” that his father, Amsterdam ragman Harry Demsky, always managed to find alcohol during Prohibition. Once the elder Demsky got into trouble for drinking ceremonial wine stored at his synagogue.

Bowler’s Brewery on West Main Street was converted into the Chuctanunda Dyeing & Dressing Company.  But Donlon wrote that the establishment continued to make products that smelled alcoholic and federal agents raided with “crippling frequency.”

Some saloons went underground during Prohibition—from 1920 to 1933.  Descendants of the O’Shaughnessy family recalled that their East Main Street bar in Amsterdam closed for the duration but reopened after repeal.  During what was called the Great Hypocrisy, the family sold moonshine off their back porch.

Federal agents based in Albany and state police appeared to handle most of the war on alcohol cases.  Donlon said troopers arrested 14 people at Ashley’s Tavern in Amsterdam in July 1921 and seized $10,000 worth of liquor.  Two years later the liquor was returned under court order. 

According to a Google search of Daily Gazette records, in December 1922 one of the largest raids so far in the Northern District of New York took place on Reid Street in Amsterdam.  Federal agents seized 50 cases of beer, four gallons of whisky, five quarts of gin and 15 quarts of what was described as alcohol.  Agents destroyed 20 gallons of whisky.  One man was charged.

Five days later for the first time in the Northern District, federal agents seized a horse and sleigh in Amsterdam allegedly being used to transport 50 gallons of wine in casks.  As is the case with drug raids today, testing was to be done to ensure the liquid seized really was wine.  Two grocery store proprietors loading the sleigh were charged with “illegally possessing and transporting intoxicants.”

Seven federal agents raided suspected saloons on Locust Avenue, Schuyler and East Main Streets in Amsterdam in September 1924, arresting four men described as saloonkeepers.

A story from October 1928 indicated that proof of operating a speakeasy came when an undercover officer was able to buy an alcoholic drink.  Federal agents bought such a beverage at 29 Schuyler Street in Amsterdam and then arrested two men.  Arrests came after a brief struggle in which one suspect sustained a badly discolored eye.

A report focusing on a raid at the Kit Kat Club in Saratoga Springs in August 1930 also noted that federal agents confiscated a half barrel of beer and several bottles of what they thought was beer at Amsterdam’s Hotel Griffin on West Main Street.  One man was arrested but was released on $2000 bail.

Bail for violators of the anti-alcohol law seems high--$1000 or $2000 per person—given that a dollar was worth much more back then.  However, those charged usually were able to make bail and were released.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, October 21, 2023

56 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:08AM 

Amsterdam mayoral candidates to square off in debate on Monday
Incumbent Amsterdam Mayor Michael Cinquanti and challenger Michael Arbige will square off in a debate on Monday night, just over…

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