The Historians

An evening to remember—Paderewski’s Amsterdam concert

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History

   Ignacy Paderewski, world-famous pianist and composer who served as an early prime minister of Poland in 1919, performed at Amsterdam’s former junior high school on Guy Park Avenue on March 26, 1933. According to historian Hugh Donlon, Paderewski was invited by Reverend Anton Gorski, founding pastor of St. Stanislaus Church, one of the city’s predominantly Polish-American parishes.

Paderewski and Gorski were distant relatives by marriage. Donlon said “(Paderewski) came more to show his appreciation of the intense loyalty of Amsterdam Poles to their native land than to any other purpose.”
 
Historian Jacqueline Murphy wrote in an article for Historic Amsterdam League that the concert was a benefit for the Sisters of the Resurrection orphanage.

Paderewski’s performance raised nearly $2000 and enabled the Sisters to pay off their bank debt.

The Sisters had opened a nursery on Park Street for children of women working in city mills in 1926. The nursery closed the next year and the Sisters then opened an orphanage on Brookside Avenue. Murphy wrote, “The ongoing increase in the need for their services soon overtaxed the Brookside Avenue facility and in 1932 the orphanage relocated to the former Gardiner Blood residence at 118 Market Street on the southwest corner of Market and Prospect.” Donlon recalled the 1933 concert in a column written after Paderewski’s death on June 29th, 1941, “Those of us who were fortunate enough to get into the auditorium—and it was crowded—are now even more privileged to claim with pride, ‘I heard him.’"

Among the first to greet the pianist in Amsterdam was Division Street physician Dr. Julius Schiller who had heard Paderewski when he played for the first time in America with the Chicago Symphony in 1891.

Donlon wrote that in Amsterdam Paderewski played as though he was among “a small group of personal friends.” The program began with a Bach fugue, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and a sonata by Schumann.

Donlon, who had spent many years as a church organist, wrote, “Before the evening was over he had wandered far from that musical fare. In response to wild enthusiasm he went from one Chopin composition to another, and finished with the brilliant Military Polonaise that left his spellbound audience wishing the joys of the evening might never end.”

“He was an old man then, Paderewski was,” wrote Donlon.  “The passing years, with their heartaches, were taking their toll, and there were times when he played as one tired, very, very tired. But then he would rouse himself and show flashes of his old-time technical mastery and poetic fire, his weariness concealed beneath flawless stage posture. “Those who were thcre need no jogging of the memory. Those who were not there-well, they missed Amsterdam at its musical best.”

The Sisters of the Resurrection Children’s Home on Market Street, made possible by Paderewski’s concert, filled a need.

Murphy wrote, “At times there were as many as 12 to 16 infants no more than nine days old being cared for at the home. And not only did the home care for children, but from time to time, it also helped others in need; a student from Poland who was unable to return to his home because of the world situation spent seven years under the care of the Sisters who made it possible for him to complete his medical studies,
 “The Children’s Home was closed by the diocese in 1960 and the Sisters’ ministry relocated to Massachusetts. The building was demolished in 1966 for the Route 30 South arterial.”

There was also a Protestant-based orphanage called the Children’s Home on Amsterdam’s Guy Park Avenue

Bob Cudmore is a free lance writer.

[email protected]

518 346 6657

Joseph Bucci’s Guadalcanal diary

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, Amsterdam Recorder

  Joseph A. Bucci fought valiantly on Guadalcnal in World War II and then furthered the war effort as a public speaker back home. Bucci was the son of Charles and Mary Bucci who lived at 12 Lark Street in Amsterdam’s East End.  Charles Bucci had served in World War I.  Joseph Bucci’s brother Anthony fought with the Army Air Corps in World War II.

Joseph Bucci was a graduate of St. Mary’s Institute in Amsterdam and the University of Notre Dame.  He was among the first local men to enlist in the Marines in January, 1942 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December.  He had been working as a life insurance agent for John Hancock.  He also was a candy salesman.

By October Bucci was among those fighting the Japanese in a long campaign on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific. Bucci and six others were pinned down by Japanese artillery in the Battle of Matiniku River.  The small band had missed orders to move from their foxholes to another position.

Through one long night and the next day the seven endured the artillery barrage and Japanese attacks. The seven Marines were credited with killing 175 to 200 enemy soldiers.Then Bucci and his comrades came under American artillery fire in a Marine counterattack. Ultimately the seven Marines were reunited with their unit.

By November Bucci was wounded by three pieces of shrapnel.  He contracted malaria and was shipped to a hospital in San Diego, California. It was there he learned he was to receive the Silver Star for his actions on Guadalcanal.  He was promoted to Sergeant.

He was home on leave in July 1943 when the Recorder printed an account of Bucci’s actions on Guadalcanal written by Marine private Eddie Lyon, who had interviewed Bucci at the San Diego hospital.  Bucci and his parents went to the Recorder offices to read the story and have their picture taken.

In December 1943, Bucci was still at home, assigned to the Scotia Naval Depot on Route 5, today an industrial park. He had applied for Officer Candidate School. That month Knights of Columbus Council 209 in Amsterdam honored Bucci at a dinner and presented him with a special ring. Bucci was honored or spoke at numerous gatherings while home on leave. “When I was in the South Pacific, I dreamed of getting home,” Bucci told the Knights of Columbus, according to a newspaper account.   “Just at the present I wish I were down there again.”

He added, “It is my fond wish and hope that this international mess will soon be over and that all of us can come back to the good old American way of life. However, I expect to be shoving off again soon and in whatever part of the world I am I will have this ring with me, a reminder of your thoughtfulness and I will be thoughtful for you.”

Bucci became a second lieutenant in October 1944. 

He attended Albany Law School after the war and in 1948 became head of the new Montgomery County Probation Department.

A 1951 clipping states that he was promoted to captain in the Marine Corps Reserve by President Truman. He and Louanne Wilkes of Albany married in 1953 and moved to California where Bucci worked in the Ventura County Probation Department.

In their later years Bucci and his wife moved to Virginia to be near one of their two sons. Bucci died in 2010 at age 96 at Lovingston Health Care Center in Arrington, Virginia. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Bob Cudmore is a freelance writer. 

[email protected]

518 346 6657

"Walking the horses"

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, Amsterdam Recorder

  In the early 1900s, thoroughbred horses owned by carpet mill magnate Stephen Sanford walked each summer to Saratoga Springs from Sanford’s Hurricana Farm in Amsterdam. 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.

Efforts are underway to preserve remaining buildings at the complex, originally called Hurricana Farm but later known as Sanford Stud Farm. “First, we’d go up to Hagaman, a couple of miles away, and then we’d head for Top Notch, or West Galway, as it’s called,’ Hughes said. ‘That would be about five miles. Then we’d go three miles straight east to Galway village. Then we’d go to West Milton, about seven miles farther east, and there we’d stop at the old Dutch Inn and feed the horses and men. My, those breakfasts tasted good!

By that time it would be close to daylight. “On the way over, half the horses would be under saddle with boys up. After breakfast the saddles were put on the others which had been led by the men up to this point, and we’d walk the remaining ten miles to Saratoga, coming in by Geyser Spring.” In 1901, Sanford built his own stable on Nelson Avenue in Saratoga. He had as many as 35 horses at a time.

When asked why he kept so many horses, the industrialist replied he was not in the raising business for margin, in other words for profit. Author Robb, an official of the New York State Racing Commission in 1969 when he wrote his book about the Sanfords, said Stephen Sanford started buying the property that would become Hurricana Farm in the 1870s. His doctor recommended he take up farming as a hobby to help with what may have been stomach ulcers.

And Robb said that Sanford’s sons, John and William. encouraged their father in this enterprise because of their own interest in fast horses, especially jumpers. William died in 1896. From 1903 through 1907, the Sanfords invited the people of Amsterdam to the Sanford Matinee Races at Hurricana on the Sunday closest to Fourth of July. Trolleys ran up to Market and Meadow Streets.

From there, horse drawn wagons took people to the farm. Some automobiles went to the farm as well but were not admitted to the grounds. There was food, drink, music and, of course, horse racing. Some 15,000 attended the event during its last year. New York State outlawed betting in 1907 and racing stopped at Saratoga.

Temporarily, the Sanfords sold most of their horses to out-of-staters and Canadians, according to Robb. Stephen Sanford was blind the last five years of his life. Born in 1826, he worked with his father John and then on his own to create the famuly carpet mills. Stephen Sanford went to West Point, served in Congress and was a friend of Ulysses S. Grant.

The elder Sanford doted on his grandchildren, in particular his namesake, born in 1899. He gave young Stephen a Shetland pony almost before the youngster could walk. The boy called the pony Laddie.

The grandfather bestowed the nickname Laddie on his grandson as well. Stephen Sanford died February 13, 1913. Six months later, racing resumed at Saratoga along with the first running of the Sanford Memorial. Stephen’s elder son John continued to head the carpet mills and racing stables created during his father’s lifetime. According to Robb, John Sanford inherited $40 million at his father’s death.

Bob Cudmore is a free lance writer.

[email protected]

518 346 6657

Bob Cudmore and The Historians

2014-2024

Thank You

37 overcast in The City of Amsterdam at 6:14AM-Saturday, March 30, 2024-Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather-Mostly sunny, with a high near 49. West wind 16 to 18 mph. Tonight Mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. West wind 6 to 10 mph. Sunday Partly sunny, with a high near 50. West wind 10 to 14 mph.

38 overcast in The City of Amsterdam at 6:04AM-Friday, March 29, 2024-Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 48. Breezy, with a northwest wind 9 to 14 mph increasing to 17 to 22 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 36 mph. Tonight Mostly cloudy, with a low around 30. Breezy, with a west wind 14 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 38 mph. Saturday Mostly sunny, with a high near 53. Sunday A chance of snow showers before 8am. Partly sunny, with a high near 50.

Two smart men from the Mohawk Valley

44 overcast in The City of Amsterdam at 6:06AM-Thursday, March 28, 2024-Mohawk Valley Weather-A chance of showers, mainly between 9am and noon. Patchy fog between 11am and noon. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 47. West wind 6 to 10 mph. Tonight Mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. West wind 8 to 10 mph. Friday Partly sunny, with a high near 48. Breezy, with a west wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph.

Bob at WBUR Boston Public Radio

Something to read while you wait for "fill in the Blank"

A story from the lost year of 2021

Soccer, ice cream and men's clothing among 2021's topics
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History. Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder

Soccer players from the British navy competed in a 1941 exhibition game against the Bigelow-Sanford United's, a soccer club sponsored by the Amsterdam carpet manufacturer.

The Recorder reported, "With pipers piping and a total of three bands contributing to a musical background, the Bigelow-Sanford team squeezed out a 3-2 victory over picked players from the Royal British Navy Saturday night at Mohawk Mills Park in the greatest soccer show of all time in Amsterdam."

Ed McKnight scored twice for the locals and Howie Dynes scored once. It was the first local soccer game under the lights. Rain made the field slippery.

Great Britain was at war with Germany when the benefit was played to raise funds for British relief.

The Bigelow-Sanford soccer team formed in 1893. Gavin "Guy" Murdoch, who fought in World War I with the Canadian army, was anonymous editor of United's PX, a monthly newsletter published during World War II

Guy Murdoch was a quality supervisor at Mohawk Carpet. His grandson Gavin Murdoch, retired Amsterdam high school principal, provided information for this story.

Tollner's ice cream occupied a white building on Route 5 in Fort Johnson near the railroad tracks, west of the main gate of St. Mary's Cemetery.

Willis Tollner, Sr., started the popular shop with his father, Fred Tollner, in 1935.

Willis Tollner, Sr., died in 1955 at 47. Also that year Willis's father Fred and his wife moved to Yonkers, New York, where one of their daughters lived.

Willis Senior's sons Willis Junior (Bill) and Ron operated the ice cream shop in its later years according to Fort Johnson native Shirley Kosinski.

Bill Tollner, married Fran, who had worked as a carhop. They relocated to western New York and have four children. Ron Tollner died young, leaving his wife Peggy Van Patten Tollner and one son.

Tollner's closed and the building was torn down along with many other structures when Route 5 in Fort Johnson and Tribes Hill was rebuilt in the 1960s as a four lane highway.

Paul Guttenberg, who headed Mortan's men's store in Amsterdam until it closed in 1990, passed away in August 2021. Paul was born in New York City in 1927, the son of H. Morton and Pearl Rauch Guttenberg.

Mortan's was named after Paul's father, who moved his clothing store from Schenectady to Amsterdam in 1933. Despite launching in the Depression,

Mortan's prospered at several East Main Street locations. Mortan's last store was in the downtown mall.

In his memoir "Too Long Ago" about growing up in Amsterdam, historian David Pietrusza wrote, "Imagine Paul Newman operating a clothing store in Amsterdam, and, you have an approximation of Paul Guttenberg, whose skill in making a sale was prodigious."

Guttenberg was a U.S. Marine veteran and graduate of Union College. After Mortan's closed he pursued other interests including skiing and flying airplanes.

The Guttenbergs made their home in Broadalbin. In 2007 Paul and his wife Susanne, a health administrator, assumed ownership of Montgomery Meadows, a 120-bed nursing home on Amsterdam's South Side. The facility was renamed River Ridge Living Center.

Eleanore Cramer Breier, widow of late Amsterdam mayor and industrialist Marcus Breier, died last May in Miami, Florida at 101. A graduate of Ithaca College, Eleanore was a physical education teacher at the former Theodore Roosevelt Junior High in Amsterdam.

Veteran radio broadcaster and Mohawk Valley Daily Gazette reporter Sam Zurlo, 90, died October 25 at his Tribes Hill home. In July a column had chronicled Zurlo's early working years when he was in the U.S. Army, a disc jockey and newsman at Armed Forces Radio Service in Frankfurt, Germany.

Mohawk Valley News The Daily Gazette, The Recorder News, The Leader-Herald and Nippertown. https://www.dailygazette.om/c

41 overcast in The City of Amsterdam at 5:56AM-Wednesday, March 27, 2024-Mohawk Valley Weather-Showers, mainly before 3pm. High near 50. Southeast wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Tonight A chance of showers, mainly before 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 37. Thursday A chance of showers, mainly between 1pm and 4pm. Cloudy, with a high near 50. West wind.

Something to read while you wait for your favorite TV Show 

"Who Do You Think You Are?" visits Fonda and Johnstown
By Bob Cudmore

Story from July 2022

A national family history television show recently focused on a celebrity's ancestors in the Mohawk Valley.

Actor Nick Offerman and a production crew from NBC's "Who Do You Think You Are?" recorded interviews at sites in the Albany area and the Old Courthouse in Fonda, home to Montgomery County's history and genealogical collections, and the Johnstown Public Library, in the city founded by British colonial leader Sir William Johnson.

Offerman is best known for his role as Ron Swanson in the sitcom "Parks and Recreation." Researchers traced his roots to a Mohawk Valley couple, Bartholomew and Eva Pickard and their grandson, Joseph Mabee.

Montgomery County historian Kelly Yacobucci Farquhar said that members of the Mohawk nation complained about Eva Pickard, "Their complaint was that she owned a tavern around the area we know today as Indian Castle which is actually in Herkimer County. They complained that she would get them drunk and have them sign away their land."

Farquhar said there are references to this issue in documents in the Sir William Johnson papers, copies of which are at the Johnstown library. Pickard apparently was removed from her land.

Years later her grandson Joseph Mabee was able to recover a lot of that land in return for his military service with the rebels in the Revolutionary War.

By then Sir William Johnson was deceased. His family and many Mohawks and others loyal to the British crown had left the Mohawk Valley.

At the end of the TV show Offerman and relatives are seen standing on the land in question, located in the Herkimer County town of Danube west of Minden in Montgomery County.

Neither Farquhar nor Erica Wing of the Johnstown library was interviewed on camera. Farquhar, who has been with the county history department for 26 years, said, "I was OK with that because I was very nervous thinking about whether I would be on camera A lot of people were hoping the local historians would be filmed as well. I think the historians they had on did a fantastic job relating what was going on at that time."

Offerman and history professor Tim Shannon of Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania discussed Offerman's ancestry on the TV show in an interview filmed in Fonda.

Shannon said, "(Offerman) seemed very much interested in learning about the Mohawks and their relations with the colonists there. I was glad to have the occasion to visit the Montgomery County Department of History and Archives and appreciated the staff's willingness to accommodate the film shoot."

Originally the TV show was to start production in March 2020 but the work was postponed by the pandemic. Production actually began in September, 2021.

Farquhar credits county supervisors with foresight for creating the Department of History and Archives in 1934. There was Depression-era federal funding available to have the staff then document area history.

The staff would get copies of church and cemetery records from across the state because at one time Montgomery County and its predecessor Tryon County encompassed territory west of Schenectady to Central New York, north to Canada and south to Pennsylvania.

Farquhar said over 30 counties can trace their origins back to Montgomery and Tryon County. "That's why genealogists and local history researchers come here to do research."

An event is being planned in Fonda on Saturday, August 27, to mark the 250th anniversary of the creation of Tryon County, the British colonial name for what became Montgomery County.

That day there will be historical tours of the area, artisan and militia reenactors and a new promotional video for the Department of History and Archives.

Friday, March 29, 2024-Episode 418-Bruce Dearstyne is encouraging New Yorkers to celebrate April 20 as the birthday of the Empire State.  The first New York State constitution was adopted April 20, 1777 during the Revolutionary War.  Bruce Dearstyne was formerly on the staff of the Office of State History and the State Archives.  He has written extrnsively on New York State history.

Bruce W. Dearstyne has published several books, including Railroads and Railroad Regulations in New York State, 1900–1913. He is co-author of New York: Yesterday and Today. He served as a program director at the New York State Archives and on the staff of the Office of State History. He has taught New York State history at the University at Albany, State University of New York, Russell Sage College, and the State University of New York at Potsdam. Dr. Dearstyne was also a professor at the University of Maryland College of Information Studies where he directed the HiLS (History/Information Science) joint degree program. He continues to teach there as an adjunct professor. He resides in Guilderland, New York

Mohawk Valley News The Daily Gazette, The Recorder News, The Leader-Herald and Nippertown. https://www.dailygazette.om/c

27 fair in The City of Amsterdam at 5:47AM Tuesday, March 26, 2024-Mohawk Valley Weather-Increasing clouds, with a high near 46. Tonight A chance of showers, mainly after 2am. Cloudy, with a low around 36. East wind around 7 mph. Wednesday Showers likely, mainly between 8am and 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 52.

Something to read while you wait for your lunch to heat in the microwave...

Businesses that made house calls
By Bob Cudmore

Johnstown baker Harold Bell used to bang a bell to alert the neighborhood when he was on the street with bread for sale. There was a Gloversville door-to-door baker named Peter Knapp.

Julia Hull has memories of home deliveries in both Johnstown and Gloversville. She lived on Miller Street in Johnstown and also on Bloomingdale Avenue in Gloversville during her childhood in the 1940s and 1950s.

The iceman was closer to home: her stepfather Frank Sparks who operated Sparkles Natural Ice.

He would grab a block of ice with a pair of tongs and put it on top of his shoulder, Hull recalled, On his shoulder was kind of a leather cape so he didn't get all wet.

Refrigerators replaced iceboxes in the 1930s and 1940s, although people who owned summer camps held onto their iceboxes longer than city people, according to Hull. By 1950, though, Sparks the iceman had concluded that the refrigerator was here to stay, and he got a job at Lee Dye in Johnstown.

In Amsterdam the Sweet Ice Company hung on in the frozen water business until the late 1960s.

According to Sweet family descendants Debra Baranello and Karin Hetrik, Waterman Sweet, Senior, started Dealers In Ice in Fort Johnson in 1919 and originally may have cut ice from the Mohawk River. By 1936 the business had moved to a garage in the rear of 270 Division Street and the name was changed to the W. Sweet Ice Company.

I remember in the 1960s that people would come here to get ice on the way to the lake, Baranello said. And we would have to go out and help. And they'd tell you if they wanted 25 pounds or 50 pounds and you would have to chop it.

Their grandfather John Sweet died in 1966 and there was nobody to take over the company.
The sisters started an antiques business in 2005 on Division Street called the Sweet Ice Company Antique Shop.

Another well-known door-to-door business in Amsterdam was Harry Demsky the rag man, the father of actor Kirk Douglas.

In his autobiography The Ragman's Son, Douglas wrote that his father left their Eagle Street home every day with his horse-drawn wagon, traveling the streets of Amsterdam yelling, Rags, any rags! The rags collected were sold to what we would call a recycling company.

Douglas wrote, I'd help my father stuff the rags into burlap bags. I'd jab four holes in the top of the bag, lace a woman's discarded stocking through the holes, knot it, and add it to the pile of bags. I got to be quite good at stuffing ragbags, I don't think I'd have any trouble doing it today.

SNOW PLOW ON THE TROLLEY TRACKS

In a section called East End Notes in the December 11, 1915 edition of the Amsterdam Recorder, coverage was given to efforts to clear the trolley tracks on upper Vrooman Avenue with what was called an electric snow plow.

The plow, going up the steep hill, ran into a cap covering the water main shut off that had been installed between the rails at the corner of Hibbard Street.

The Recorder wrote, The water cap had the advantage of position in the field of conflict being on the uphill side of the advancing plow, but in the brief struggle that ensued the plow came off victorious. The cap came off, too, and about a foot of attached casing with it.

Evidently the snowplow is in condition to cope with anything old Boreas hands us this season. Boreas is the Greek god of the north wind.

Friday, March 29, 2024-Episode 418-Bruce Dearstyne is encouraging New Yorkers to celebrate April 20 as the birthday of the Empire State.  The first New York State constitution was adopted April 20, 1777 during the Revolutionary War.  Bruce Dearstyne was formerly on the staff of the Office of State History and the State Archives.  He has written extrnsively on New York State history.

Bruce W. Dearstyne has published several books, including Railroads and Railroad Regulations in New York State, 1900–1913. He is co-author of New York: Yesterday and Today. He served as a program director at the New York State Archives and on the staff of the Office of State History. He has taught New York State history at the University at Albany, State University of New York, Russell Sage College, and the State University of New York at Potsdam. Dr. Dearstyne was also a professor at the University of Maryland College of Information Studies where he directed the HiLS (History/Information Science) joint degree program. He continues to teach there as an adjunct professor. He resides in Guilderland, New York

Mohawk Valley News The Daily Gazette, The Recorder News, The Leader-Herald and Nippertown. https://www.dailygazette.om/c

Amsterdam, Montgomery County restaurant guide, reviews, features
Steven Cook

23 fair in The City of Amsterdam at 6:15AM Monday, March 25, 2024-Sunny, with a high near 44. Calm wind becoming east 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Tonight Mostly clear, with a low around 25. East wind around 7 mph. Tuesday Increasing clouds, with a high near 49. East wind 6 to 8 mph.

1888 blizzard impacted living and dead

By Bob Cudmore

   The blizzard of March 1888 disrupted the lives of people in Montgomery County along with the rest of the northeastern United States.

   The storm killed more than 400 people, including 200 school children and 100 sailors.  Sustained high winds and temperatures well below freezing, heightened the storm’s fury.

   The blizzard disrupted the funeral of Mrs. Robert Hartley in West Galway and West Charlton near Amsterdam.

   In 1860, Amsterdam woodworker Isaac Shuler had opened a wood shop to make cabinets and furniture. Soon Shuler was making coffins and after the Civil War, began offering undertaking services.

   After Shuler died, W. Max Reid operated the undertaking business.  Reid wrote a 1901 history book, “The Mohawk Valley.” 

   According to a newspaper accounts Mrs. Hartley’s funeral service was held at the Presbyterian Church in West Galway as the blizzard raged on Monday, March 12, 1888.  H.O. Wilkie was the undertaker for the Shuler funeral home.

   Wilkie had 26 men with him who opened the roads as a procession set out for the West Charlton cemetery.  They traveled two miles reaching the farm of John Cunning but could go no farther.  The corpse was left at the Cunning farm.

   Snow was said to be as high as the backs of the horses as Wilkie and the driver of the team pulling the hearse, Wells Johnson, trekked toward Amsterdam.

   Johnson walked ahead of the team to find the road.  Wilkie was thrown from the seat of the hearse several times when they hit potholes.  The trip took four hours.  Several mourners were stranded for several days at West Galway church.

   Burtiss Deal, born in 1882 in Amsterdam, was living with his parents in West Galway in 1888.  His father operated a textile mill there.

   The snowstorm and the birth of Deal’s younger brother Howard occurred simultaneously. The doctor was marooned with the Deals for several days.  Deal was elected mayor of Amsterdam in 1947 and served four, two-year terms.

  The 1888 storm dealt a heavy blow to the railroads.  A cattle train was stalled between Amsterdam and Tribes Hill.  Dead cattle had to be removed from the cars.  Passenger and freight trains were stalled in Amsterdam on the north and south sides of the Mohawk River. 

   Conductor Mason of train 52 on the south side of the river had a big crew and, according to a published account, “Attended to the wants and comforts of his passengers in first class style.  The jovial conductor had each foot incased in a canvas bag and presented a comical sight walking around in his improvised snow shoes.”

   One reporter wrote, “Mrs. Cole, the New York Central ticket agent, was besieged with questions from belated travelers, but answered every one with a kind word and a smile.”

   The wind was described as being “almost a cyclone at times.”  As far as the eye could see there was four feet of snow.

   Charles Yund, a saloon keeper on Amsterdam’s South Side, stuck a large flag in a snow pile which completely covered one of his entrances.  A reporter wrote, “It is intended to notify customers that he is not entirely buried.”

   On some city streets where the snow was shoveled, the banks on either side were on a level with the second stories of the houses.  Tunnels through the snow were common sights.  Citizens were urged to dig out fire hydrants.

   There was at least one old timer not impressed with the 1888 storm.  Stephen R. Voorhees told a reporter that in the winter of 1836 a snow storm had visited the region which was more severe. It snowed steadily, he said, for three days and three nights.

Friday, March 29, 2024

Bruce Dearstyne is encouraging New Yorkers to celebrate April 20 as the birthday of the Empire State.  The first New York State constitution was adopted April 20, 1777 during the Revolutionary War.  Bruce Dearstyne was formerly on the staff of the Office of State History and the State Archives.  He has written extrnsively on New York State history.

Bruce W. Dearstyne has published several books, including Railroads and Railroad Regulations in New York State, 1900–1913. He is co-author of New York: Yesterday and Today. He served as a program director at the New York State Archives and on the staff of the Office of State History. He has taught New York State history at the University at Albany, State University of New York, Russell Sage College, and the State University of New York at Potsdam. Dr. Dearstyne was also a professor at the University of Maryland College of Information Studies where he directed the HiLS (History/Information Science) joint degree program. He continues to teach there as an adjunct professor. He resides in Guilderland, New York

Mohawk Valley News The Daily Gazette, The Recorder News, The Leader-Herald and Nippertown. https://www.dailygazette.om/c