Historians Go Fund Me 2022

In the U.S. Mail or On-Line

 A check made out to Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  You may give anonymously and no donation is too small.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Memories of the Mohawk Valley

By Bob Cudmore 

   Mail and electronic messages have been coming in regarding the old days in the Mohawk Valley.

Famous Ferry Owner Buried Near Glen

   Al Adams of Amsterdam provided information about a Montgomery County link to the American Revolution. On Route 30A, about four miles south of the town of Glen, is a New York historical marker noting that a nearby grave is connected to General George Washington.

   The marker states that William McConkey is buried there and that McConkey, who lived from 1777 to 1825, was the owner of a ferry on Delaware River on which Washington crossed December 25, 1776.   After crossing the river, Washington and his troops defeated the British in Trenton, New Jersey.

Her First Name Was Estelle

In a recent column on the 100th anniversary of the Montgomery County Historical Society, which operates Old Fort Johnson, it was noted that Mrs. Frederick Greene was the first female president of the society in 1915, one of the first women in the state to head a historical society. Mrs. Greene’s first name was unknown. Mary Manning of Amsterdam has provided that elusive fact, producing an obituary notice for Frederick Greene stating that Mrs. Greene was Estelle Delbridge Greene, a native of Atlanta, Georgia. Frederick Greene was an official of his family’s knitting mill in Amsterdam. Manning’s aunt had been a cook for the Greenes. 

Newspaperman Remembers

Richard G. Ellers now lives in Warren, Ohio, after a career as a newspaper reporter, most notably at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Ellers lived in Amsterdam when he was young and has memories of the Carpet City.

In a cold spell in either 1943 or 1944, Amsterdam High School closed to conserve coal. Ellers said, “We were told that closing A.H.S. saved as much coal as all the other schools burned.” Ellers said the snow crunched underfoot when it was very cold, adding, “That crunch is linked in my memory to walking to Christmas midnight mass at St. Michael’s from our home, an apartment on East Main Street downtown.”

Ellers also remembered that in the spring, “You could see the strata of winter in the curbside snow piles, snow-cinders-snow-cinders and so on.”

At Christmas in his East Main Street apartment, Ellers could hear the Salvation Army bell ringer on the street below. There was only single pane glass on the windows in the apartment and Ellers said, “I can still hear the clink-clink-clink of snow chains on cars driving below. Occasionally every third or fourth clink would be counterpointed with a double thunk, which was the sound of the ends of a broken chain slapping the underside of a fender.”

Rugmakers in 1939

Virginia Dybas Czeluzniak of Amsterdam contributed a scorecard from the 1939 season of the Amsterdam Rugmakers baseball team in the Canadian-American League. Admission was 40 cents and the scorecard, which she had filled out, cost five cents. Herbert Shuttleworth, 2nd, who went on to head Mohawk Carpets and Mohasco, is listed as president of the Rugmakers and Eddie Sawyer is manager.

Czelusniak, who grew up on Crane Street, said she and her friends walked to the ball field at what was then Mohawk Mills Park and liked to talk with the young ballplayers. She recalled when Joe DiMaggio and the New York Yankees came to play the local team.

Amsterdam native Sam Zurlo noted that practically all the businesses that advertised in the 1939 score card are no longer in operation: Andy Russo’s Service Station, East End Coal Co., Peoples Ice, Lawrences Market and Olbrychs Dairy, for example. Also gone from the local scene is Sampones at 225 East Main Street, which advertised that its treats were always a hit “On a hot day, stop and refresh yourself in our modern fountain.”

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Episode 60, May 10, 2015 - Bob Cudmore with interviews from the Fort Plain conference on the American Revolution in the Mohawk Valley: Jim Kirby Martin, co-author of “Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution; Jack Kelly, author of “Band of Giants: The Amateur Soldiers Who Won America’s Independence;” Don Hagist, author of “The Revolution’s Last Men: The Soldiers Behind the Photographs;” Kyle Jenks of “Drums Along the Mohawk Outdoor Drama,” retired Montgomery County Historian Jacqueline Murphy, John Warren, editor of the New York History Blog and Brian Mack of Fort Plain Museum. 

Thursday, May 12, 2022-Top history topics from 2005 

Queen Libby, Boss Snell and Coach Isabel were among the Mohawk Valley figures profiled in Focus on History in 2005.

Friday

May 13, 2022-Episode 422

Highlights Podcast #2 for 2022.  Topics include early American patriot Marinus Willett, a corset maker in Poland, early radio, World War I, the Titanic and celebrating New York State’s birthday.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, May 10, 2022

https://dailygazette.com/

https://www.recordernews.com/

Leader Herald

Broadalbin-Perth board candidates meet voters at public forum

by Andrew Pugliese

https://www.leaderherald.com/