The Historians Go Fund Me goal this week $150.00 The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  

Use the link or a check in The U.S. Mail to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. 

Monday, February 20, 2023-Story behind the story (Podcast about 7 minutes), the Mohawk Valley reindeer man

Tuesday, February 21, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Smoke

Two years after the boys came home from World War Two, Mohawk Carpet Mills in Amsterdam published a small but handsome picture book called Smoke: The Story of a Fight.

Wednesday, February 22, 2023-From the Archives, October 7-Episode 443-How to write historical fiction with Alyson Richman, co-author with Shaunna Edwards of The Thread Collectors, a Civil War historical novel.

1863: In a small Creole cottage in New Orleans, an ingenious young Black woman named Stella embroiders intricate maps on repurposed cloth to help enslaved men flee and join the Union Army. Bound to a man who would kill her if he knew of her clandestine activities, Stella has to hide not only her efforts but her love for William, a Black soldier and a brilliant musician.

Thursday, February 23, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Vaudeville Days

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. 

Mohawk Valley’s reindeer man

By Bob Cudmore

   Mohawk Valley native Sheldon Jackson, a Presbyterian missionary, had a major impact on life in Alaska.

   Born in in 1834 in the hamlet of Minaville in the town of Florida south of Amsterdam, Jackson was the son of farmer and legislator, Samuel C. Jackson, and his wife, Delia Sheldon Jackson, daughter of New York State Assembly Speaker Alexander Sheldon.

   The Jackson name was bestowed on the Erie Canal community of Port Jackson in 1835.  Port Jackson was later annexed by the city of Amsterdam and is known today as Amsterdam’s South Side.

   Jackson attended Union College and Princeton Theological Seminary.  He was graduated, ordained and married within one week in 1858.  His wife was Mary Voorhees from Mill Point in Glen. 

   Jackson wanted to be a foreign missionary but was turned down by the Presbyterian Church because of poor eyesight and short stature—he was five feet tall.

   According to Troy genealogy/history researcher Rebecca Rector, who provided information for this column, the Albany Times Union reported that Jackson “was diminutive in nature, but became fairly sturdy by forcing himself into the rugged life.”

   Instead of becoming a foreign missionary, Jackson served on the American frontier.  He established over one hundred churches and missions, including the first Presbyterian churches in Wyoming, Montana, Utah and Arizona.

   In 1877, Jackson went to Alaska and, although he never permanently lived there, was appointed superintendent of education in 1885.

  Some academics and native people have criticized Jackson’s English-only approach to education.  Professor Stephen Haycox of the University of Alaska said Jackson’s efforts were a detriment to native languages.

   Jackson found the indigenous people were starving.  American whalemen had destroyed the whales and walruses the natives depended on for food.  The introduction of firearms decimated fur-bearing land animals.

   Jackson was editor of the North Star monthly newspaper in Sitka, Alaska.  In 1888 North Star reported, “The neglected condition of these (Native) people lay like a heavy weight upon the large and loving heart of Dr. Sheldon Jackson.”

   Jackson visited Siberia and found people there relied on domesticated reindeer for food.  He raised funds to introduce reindeer herds in Alaska.

   Sent by the U.S. government to Lapland and Norway, he purchased over 500 reindeer and secured a colony of Laplanders to look after the animals until Alaskans were trained in how to raise reindeer.

   Jackson said that “the reindeer is to the far North what the camel is to desert regions.”  Union College honored Alaska’s “Reindeer Man” at their 1900 Founders Day.  The Schenectady Gazette called Jackson the “dynamic St. Paul of America.”

   Jackson collected Alaskan artifacts and this collection became the basis for the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka.  Rosemary Carlton, in a 2006 article, called into question what she said was Jackson’s “duplicitous” collection of traditional artifacts from native peoples he had worked hard to change. 

   Toward the end of his life Jackson lived in Washington, D.C., working for the Alaskan division of the U.S. Bureau of Education.  His wife died in 1908.   Jackson died the next year and is buried in Minaville’s Chuctanunda Cemetery.

   Biographer Robert L. Stewart said Jackson was able to “triumph over physical weakness when sustained by high purpose and unfaltering hope.”

   Jackson’s daughter, Delia S. Jackson was a founder of the National Women’s Party, a leader in the fight for women’s suffrage.  She died in Washington in 1952.

   Time Magazine in 2009 marked the 50th anniversary of the 49th state, and placed Jackson as number two on a list of  top ten Alaskans.  The magazine praised him for “setting up free public schools for Native American, Eskimo and white children.” 

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Monday, February, 20, 2023

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