Thursday, Zero Two, Two Three, Twenty Twenty Three

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The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  

or a check to Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. 

The Historians Radio Schedule Saturday, February 25 at Noon and 12:35 on WCSS Amsterdam 106.9FM and 1490AM and WIZR, Johnstown 102.9FM and 930AM and in Northville 104.3FM. Next week on Albany Public Radio WMHT89.1FM RISE

When ice cream cones were made at home

A life of carpets and horse racing

By Bob Cudmore

When Fanny Markes was a little girl in the early 1900s, she carried ice cream cones from her home on Elizabeth Street in Amsterdam to a candy store on Brookside Avenue operated by her brother Charles and his partner, Amos Hill. Fanny's mother, also named Fanny, made the cones at home, pressing them with a device like a waffle iron.

The store, called Hill and Markes, later became a wholesale distributing company. In 1927, Hill and Markes bought a building at Grove and Chuctanunda Streets that served as headquarters for the business until torn down for urban renewal in the 1970s.

Fanny Markes married Edwin Tallman in 1917. Edwin served in World War I and became a chauffeur for Dr. Lew Finch on Market Street. The Tallmans lived on Romeyn Avenue and Fanny was a bookkeeper at Hill and Markes.

Their son Schuyler served in World War II and became a student of military history. Now retired, he was a wire operator for Merrill Lynch.

Fanny's memories of the early days were passed on to her son and daughter-in-law, Marilyn Terwillegar Tallman, after Schuyler and Marilyn moved into Fanny's Romeyn Avenue home to care for Fanny. Schuyler and Marilyn, who have known each other since they were children, still live in that home. Their family has kept some memorabilia from the early days of Hill and Markes, including a sign from the Grove Street warehouse.

Marilyn Tallman recalled that Fownes Brothers, the glove maker, rented space on the third floor of the Hill and Markes building. The workers at Fownes, including Marilyn's grandmother, would stop by the candy distributor on their way out of the building to buy candy bars. The company also had a machine that made popcorn.

Uncle Charles (Markes) was a hard worker and helped many people, Schuyler Tallman said. 

The Finkle and Packer families operate Hill and Markes today at a location on Route 5S in the town of Florida.

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CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY

John Sanford assumed control of the family carpet mills in Amsterdam after the death of his father Stephen in 1913 and felt the need to reorganize.

The younger Sanford brought in William Hill Cooper, a native of England who had been president of Adirondack Power and Light Company in Amsterdam. Cooper became Sanford's first vice president in charge of production, a post he held until about the time that Sanford merged with Bigelow Hartford of New England in 1929. Cooper's son Wellesley then became general superintendent of Bigelow Sanford in Amsterdam.

Perhaps the diligence of the Coopers enabled the Sanfords to devote more time to their passion, horse racing. According to coverage of William Cooper's 1937 death in The Recorder, he was a man who hid a gentleness of heart beneath a gruff exterior.

In 1918, Cooper had a home built at 230 Market Street, a brick building different from neighboring wood frame homes. In later years, the Cooper home was owned by Herbert Singer of Amsterdam Printing, Dr. Fred Pipito, then Jeannie Morris, whose father was affiliated with the Schine Theatres.

Today the home is owned by local attorney Kris Singh and his wife Sunita, who have been told by previous owners that the same man who worked on the Sanford mansion on Church Street, currently Amsterdam City Hall, may have designed the Cooper residence.

According to historian Jacqueline Murphy, John Sanford inherited the Church Street residence from his father Stephen and expanded it starting in 1913, hiring builder John Turner. Turner added the front portico, a third floor and made other improvements.

Friday, February 24, 2022-Episode 463-In this first Highlights Edition of 2023 we revisit: Bill Buell’s Schenectady stories from the 1920s, NY State Historian Devin Lander, Jerry Snyder of Historic Amsterdam League, Jon Sorensen’s book When Mommy Was a Commie, Alan Maddaus on a jet bomber crash in New York’s Adirondack Mountains and Mark Dawidziak on Edgar Allan Poe.

Saturday February 25, 2023-Tom Flynn of the Center for Inquiry tells about Central New York’s Freethought Trail, including the Dresden, N.Y. birthplace of the 19th century’s best known agnostic speaker, Robert Green Ingersoll.  Tom Flynn’s interview for Historians Podcast took place July 7, 2021.  He died August 23, 2021.

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Gloversville radio star King Owen  

King Owen was a radio star and night club entertainer.  He died in 1955 from long standing health problems, perhaps tuberculosis, at age 40.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, February 23, 2023

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