We need to raise $400.00 before the end of September. Historians Go Fund Me

The U.S. Mail. Rush off a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. Click https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022   

The story behind the story podcast- Summer stories from the Mohawk Valley, put in your ear buds and click the play button on the left. The print story, gravitate down the page.

Tomorrow, the cover was made of canvas

Good guess this little booklet is a collectors item today

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Little booklet backed WW II effort

The book cover was made of canvas, produced at Mohawk. Amsterdam’s two major employers, Mohawk and Bigelow-Sanford, converted production from carpets to canvas and blankets during the war. 

Wednesday, September 14, 2022- Friday, October 2, 2020-Episode 338- Jim Kaplan tells the story of African American real estate entrepreneur Philip Payton, who helped develop Harlem as a center of black culture.

Picture:U.S. Navy

Thursday, September 15, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—U.S.S. Amsterdam 

Arch D. Anderson, commander of the James T. Bergen American Legion post, contacted the Navy in 1938 to begin the campaign to get a ship named for Amsterdam.  The Chamber of Commerce got behind the idea as did Mayor Arthur Carter, who knew President Franklin Roosevelt from Roosevelt’s days in Albany.

Friday, September 16, 2022-Episode 440-Joe Collea Junior is author of Our Town--Ilion, New York: a Selective Look at 300 Years of History.  An Ilion native, Collea was a teacher and administrator in Ilion schools and served three terms as mayor of the village.

Summer stories from the Mohawk Valley

By Bob Cudmore

   Fans of local history attended gatherings late this summer, a few for the first time since the pandemic started.

   At a Sixties Forever Amsterdam reunion for several graduating years in the 1960s, one participant had a blunt remark for me about radio.  I was invited to the gathering at a new banquet hall on the South Side although my graduating class was older than the classes invited.

   The man told me he had gone to the 1965 Dave Clark Five movie at the Mohawk Theatre sponsored by WAFS radio in Amsterdam.  Only a handful of people joined him. 

   I remember a little about that day in 1965 when I worked at WAFS but recalled that Tom Stewart remembered more. 

   Stewart was a 1965 graduate of Amsterdam High who worked at WAFS that summer.  He may be best remembered in Amsterdam for playing King Arthur in Camelot, a production staged by the late drama director Bert DeRose.  Stewart lives in New York City and for many years has been the announcer on public television raising funds for the PBS station there.

   Stewart wrote, “Yes, the movie was “Catch Us If You Can” and I think it was actually at the Tryon.  Don’t know how the station got involved but am thinking that that some advance person enlisted our help.

   “My strongest memory is traveling to the Dave Clark Five’s hotel in Albany and wangling my way in to meet them; used a very primitive tape recorder and they kindly recorded a few promos for our air.  We promoted the movie premiere incessantly which led to the big event. 

   “As whoever you spoke to recalled, it was a major bust!  The numbers were few and we were shocked at the lack of turnout; so much for the power of media!”

This coming Sunday, September 18, 2022-Stone markers kept prisoners from straying

THE MOHAWK ENCAMPMENT

   An event held August 27 at the Old Courthouse in Fonda marked the 250th anniversary of the creation of Tryon County, the British colonial name for what became Montgomery County.

   There were historical bus tours, artisan and militia reenactors, tables staffed by Historic Amsterdam League and Nellis Tavern in St. Johnsville.  Plus there were cannon shots and a new promotional video for the Department of History and Archives narrated by Montgomery County Historian Kelly Yacobucci Farquhar.

   What got one Canajoharie couple talking at my table though was a story I displayed on the Mohawk Encampment. 

   In June, 1957 a group of Mohawk Indians occupied land near the Schoharie Creek on the south side of the Mohawk River and remained there until evicted by court order in the spring of 1958.

   The settlers were led by Chief Standing Arrow, also known as Frank Johnson. The encampment was to repossess part of a tract the Mohawks said was not included in land ceded to the U.S. government by the Iroquois Confederacy in the Fort Stanwix Treaty of 1784.

   In October 1957, world-renowned man of letters, Edmund Wilson, visited the encampment and Chief Standing Arrow.

   Wilson described the encounter in his 1959 book, “Apologies to the Iroquois.” Wilson found that Standing Arrow was part of an Iroquois nationalist movement.

   Montgomery County Sheriff Alton Dingman served the first eviction notices on the Mohawk settlement along the Schoharie Creek in January 1958.

   In March 1958, 25 people were reported still living at the Schoharie Creek site.  A court hearing that month resulted in another eviction order.  Some of the Mohawk huts were burned. 

   The Mohawks were offered land in the town of Fulton in Schoharie County as an alternative site in the area but if there was a settlement there, it was short lived.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, September 12, 2022

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