The 2022 Historians Podcast fund drive continues for the month of June. The need, to raise $200.00 by July 1. Two ways to transact this, On-Line https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022

Or check, stamp and mailer thru The USPS   

Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. Recognition in Return for the help.  

Old pictures of Pest House being sought

and SHERMAN’S MEMORIES

By Bob Cudmore  

          Kaye Krutz would like to locate old pictures of a building her husband and she own on Chapman Drive in the town of Amsterdam that used to be a hotel and then was known for a short time as the Pest House.

          Today, the Krutzes live in the front of the property where Janeski’s gasoline station used to be.  The building in the rear was converted to apartments before the Krutzes bought the complex 32 years ago.  They hope to locate pictures of the property before construction of the front addition.

          Originally, the building in the rear was Hotel Thayer, built in 1897.  According to Hugh Donlon’s “Annals of a Mill Town,” the structure was converted into a temporary hospital in 1909 during a smallpox outbreak and known as the Pest House.  By 1924, the Hotel Thayer relocated to Division Street in the city of Amsterdam. 

          Krutz also has discovered a cemetery on the other side of Chapman Drive with graves of young children who died years ago in a diphtheria epidemic.

HOLTON SEELEY

          Tony Ermie has a new page on his Caroga Lake web site (www.carogatimes.com) remembering Holton “Holt” Seeley.

Seeley, 96, died last month.  A native of Stratford, he was three years old when his mother died, so his grandparents who lived on Seeley Road raised him.

Seeley was state game warden in Caroga Lake for over 30 years.  "Holt" was considered one of the most knowledgeable people in the area regarding State Forest and private lands.  He was a deacon for many years at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Gloversville.  His wife Elsie survives.

"Top of the mornin', everybody" was Seeley’s greeting when he would arrive for Coffee at Fritz’s Countryside Café in Caroga, according to Ermie.

Ermie wrote, “When he shook your hand he would almost jerk your arm out of its socket. That at 90 plus years!”

In conversations with Ermie, Seeley remarked, “I wish my grandmother had lived long enough to see the electric lights come in. She read the Bible to us every night by a kerosene lamp."

Ermie said, “He talked of his faith, his love for Elsie, and his homestead. He had, at least, one Bible in each room of his home as he had difficulty walking. Wherever he was at the time he could, as he told me, ‘get fed.’" 

SHERMAN’S MEMORIES

A column describing the model train display at Sherman’s amusement park at Caroga Lake prompted childhood memories from Jerry Snyder of Amsterdam.  Snyder would stay with relatives in Canajoharie in the summer, sometimes going to Sherman’s where an afternoon of fun only cost a few dollars.

Snyder wrote, “I guess my favorite ride was the whip, but only because I wasn't big enough to ride the bumper cars by myself and when I rode with my cousin he never let me steer.  In addition to the trains, I remember a bicycle race game and some kind of fortune meter, both of which cost a penny to play.”

Snyder said the fortune meter was a test of strength, “I believe you had to squeeze a lever as hard as you could to get a series of lights to move up on it.  I remember thinking even back then that a lot of the arcade equipment looked very old.”

Snyder collects postcards and photos and came across a 1900s-era picture of a train derailment at Railroad Street in downtown Amsterdam showing the Brunswick Hotel.  A previous column made reference to that hotel, which was known as Hotel Mitchell in the 1930s, operated then by Salvatore Morreale and Joseph Sapia.

Tomorrow

Wednesday, June 22, 2022

From the Archives-2018-Historians Episode 222-Jennifer DeBruin is the author of three historical novels and is working on a non-fiction-book on Loyalist espionage during the American Revolution.  Many Loyalists ended up, as did DeBruin’s ancestors, settling in Canada.  She was a speaker at the 2018 conference on the American Revolution sponsored by the Fort Plain Museum.

Thursday, June 23, 2022

Walking the horses to Saratoga 

Racing Hall of Fame trainer Hollie Hughes, who served three generations of Sanfords, recalled the annual trek in Alex M. Robb’s book, “The Sanfords of Amsterdam.”

The trip began at the Sanford horse farm on what is now Route 30 in the town of Amsterdam. 

Friday, June 24, 2022-Episode 428-Ben Kemp from Grant Cottage in Wilton N.Y., where Ulysses Grant died after completing his memoirs.  This year is the 200th anniversary of Grant’s birth.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, June 21, 2022

https://dailygazette.com/

https://www.recordernews.com/

Leader Herald

FULTON COUNTY, JOHNSTOWN, LOCAL NEWS, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, THE GLOVERSVILLE LEADER HERALD

https://www.leaderherald.com/