Historians Podcast 2022 fund drive now totals $2100 of our $6,000 goal! Please donate online https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

... The city granted a franchise to Vollmer in 1927 for bus service in the Park Hill neighborhood near the Bigelow-Sanford carpet mills, which was not served by the trolleys operated by the F.J.&G.

The wheels on the bus go round and round

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History 

   Electric-powered trolley cars that ran on metal tracks in city streets helped set the stage for the industrial boom in Amsterdam in the early 1900s.

   The trolleys were operated by the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad (F.J.&G.)  The company also provided interurban electric trolley service to and from Johnstown, Gloversville, Fonda, Amsterdam and Schenectady.

    Businessman Charles H. Vollmer, a veteran of World War I, saw an opening in 1927 for an Amsterdam bus line that continued under local control until 1956. 

   The city granted a franchise to Vollmer in 1927 for bus service in the Park Hill neighborhood near the Bigelow-Sanford carpet mills, which was not served by the trolleys operated by the F.J.&G. 

   Historian Hugh Donlon said people found buses more convenient than trolleys.  Bus passengers were picked up at the curb, not in the middle of the street.  And buses were more maneuverable in motor vehicle traffic.

   By 1938, F.J.&G. abandoned its trolley lines in favor of buses.  Donlon wrote, “After trolleys disappeared, bus operation warfare between the F.J.&G. and the Vollmer Lines in Amsterdam continued in futility and with steadily shrinking patronage.”

   World War II temporarily brought more business than the buses could handle.  In a 1943 newspaper ad, Vollmer pleaded for patience from his customers.  Ridership had skyrocketed but labor was not available during the war.  New buses could not be purchased and parts to repair old buses were hard to find.

   Vollmer, who also owned trucks and oil tankers which hauled goods from Boston to Philadelphia, was suddenly stricken at his Van Dyke Avenue home.  He died at City Hospital on July 24, 1944 and his widow, Katherine Mason Vollmer, took over the business.

Tomorrow, Monday, April 18, 2022-The story behind the story podcast--the wheels on the bus go round and round-public transit in Amsterdam.

   Vollmer had the Amsterdam city contract to collect garbage and ashes but had trouble finding enough workers to do the job.  After Vollmer’s sudden death the garbage piled up, contributing to Mayor Wilbur Lynch’s loss to Joseph Hand in the next mayoral election, according to one of current Mayor Michael Cinquanti’s birthday books.

   Vollmer’s widow remarried in 1950 and became Katherine Vollmer Sann.  She sought state permission to increase Amsterdam bus fares from ten to fifteen cents.  The F.J.&G. also sought a fare increase. 

   The late WCSS radio personality Lloyd Smith remembered the buses struggling to reach the top of Amsterdam’s hills “loaded with shoppers, General Electric workers and (my) grandpa who worked at Alco.”

   Vollmer told state regulators the company lost $47,000 on city bus service from 1951 to 1956. 

   Mohawk Valley Transit from Utica headed by Wallace Sweet, absorbed both Vollmer’a and F.J.&G.’s Amsterdam bus lines in 1956.  The Recorder noted it was the first time in 30 years that local public transportation would be provided by one company.

      The F.J.&G. waiting room on Amsterdam’s East Main Street became the waiting room for Mohawk Valley Transit.  Both the former F.J.&G. bus garage on Division Street and the former Vollmer garage on Gardiner Street continued in use.

   Fire leveled the Division Street bus garage in 1959. The block long building and six buses owned by Mohawk Valley Transit were destroyed, even though firefighters doused the flames within fifteen minutes.

    Donlon wrote, “In April of 1971 when it appeared that Amsterdam would be left without area transportation, the state came to the rescue with funds for a fleet of buses and began contributions toward maintenance of scheduled runs.”   

    The city of Amsterdam discontinued bus service in 2018 when the public transportation deficit ballooned to $1 million.  The state budget includes funds for  Capital District Transportation Authority to extend bus service to Amsterdam and Montgomery County this fall.

Bob Cudmore at work this Week

Tuesday, April 19, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Sanford Stud Farm horse trainer Hollie Hughes

Grace Bergen of Amsterdam has contributed an obituary of Amsterdam horse trainer Hollie Hughes, who died at the age of 92 in 1981.  At the time of his death, Hughes was living in East Rockaway on Long Island.  He was buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Fort Johnson.

Wednesday, April 20, 2022-From the Archives March 26, 2021-Episode 363-How the Adirondack forest preserve was motorized.  The guest is John Warren, founder and editor of New York Almanack.

Thursday, April 21, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam remembers Teddy Roosevelt

 Former student Paul Russo remembered that Heil addressed students on the first day of school in the auditorium, “He said that when he was a kid, Teddy Roosevelt came to town and Heil jumped up on the running board of Roosevelt’s car and shock hands with him.”

Friday, April 22, 2022-Episode 419-English classics professor Edmund Richardson is author of The King’s Shadow: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Deadly Quest for the Lost City of Alexandria, the story of a deserter who discovered a civilization founded by Alexander the Great in Afghanistan in the fourth century B.C.

Historians Podcast 2022 fund drive now totals $2100 of our $6,000 goal! Please donate online https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Sunday, April 17, 2022

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