Monday, December 11, 2023

Bob Cudmore Over 10 years Over 500 Interviews

Thanks to Andrew Heck for the latest $100.00 donation over this past weekend.

This week we need to gather $250.00

 Please help us continue The Historians Podcast by making a donation.  Please contribute at https://gofund.me/777777e9  or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore, 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. $5280.00 the goal $7000.00 by the end of the year.

Mohawk Valley Went to War in 1941

By Bob Cudmore

    Alton R. Swann, born in Schenectady, moved to Gloversville, went to high school and business school there and became an accountant at Schenectady General Electric.

   Drafted by the Army in May 1941, Swann was serving at Clark Air Base in the Philippines with the 803rd Engineer Battalion.

   The day after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, a Japanese bombing attack December 8 resulted in destruction of Clark Field.  Swann’s 803rd battalion was decimated in the battle for Bataan.  After being moved to the island fortress of Corregidor, Swann was captured.

   He survived a death march, three years of prison in the Philippines and Japan including a trip to Japan aboard a "hell" ship, the Noto Maru.

   In Japan he was used as slave labor.  Liberated after the Japanese surrender, he was aboard a hospital ship when he wrote his fiancé, Glendean Brooks in Gloversville, asking if she was still waiting for him.

   She was.  Swann married Brooks at the Gloversville Methodist Church parsonage Thanksgiving afternoon, 1945.  Swann went back to work at GE, was transferred to New England and lived many years in Monroe, Connecticut.

   James V. Hogg from Amsterdam was on a Navy ship somewhere in the Pacific when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

   His niece Karen terHaar said, “In the months after Pearl Harbor, many ships in the area were ordered to maintain radio silence. The families of crew members did not know if their fathers, sons or brothers were dead or alive.”

   Hogg’s parents, Frank and Mildred Hogg, were living on Grant Avenue in Amsterdam.

   TerHaar wrote, “About four months after Pearl Harbor, Mom was sitting on the front porch when she heard the postman’s voice. She looked up and saw him running down the sidewalk. He was waving a letter and yelling, ‘Jimmy’s alive! Jimmy’s alive!’”

   James Hogg became a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy and married a woman from Australia. He later lived in California.

   An Amsterdam soldier died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 82 years ago.  William E. Hasenfuss, Jr. came from a family of nine on Northampton Road.

   Hasenfuss had flown planes at an air field in Perth before enlisting in the Army in 1939.  He died when Japanese airplanes shot up the B-24 bomber Hasenfuss and his ground crew were working on at Hickam Air Field in Hawaii.

   His mother, Frieda, Amsterdam’s first World War II Gold Star Mother, christened the light cruiser U.S.S. Amsterdam in 1944 at Newport News, Virginia.

   “I was thinking of William when I smashed that bottle.” she said after the vessel slid into the James River.

   A model of USS Amsterdam was handmade by the late Albert M. Swager of Pennsylvania, a former crewman, who donated it to Amsterdam’s Walter Elwood Museum.  Volunteers are working on an exhibit.

   The movie “South of Tahiti,” playing at the Strand Theatre on East Main Street in Amsterdam, was interrupted Sunday afternoon December 7, 1941 when the news broke that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.  Radio coverage was piped into the theater and dazed patrons left the building.

   George A. Tralka, 15, was at his family’s James Street home in Amsterdam when he heard about the attack on the radio.  At first Tralka thought Pearl Harbor was in Alaska.

      The next day as Tralka delivered the Schenectady Gazette he heard President Roosevelt’s “day of infamy” speech on the radio when at Reid Hill Pharmacy.

“It was a solemn moment in the drug store,” Tralka wrote in his memoir, “Diary of a Replacement Soldier.”  Tralka survived the war and became a physician in the Washington, D.C. area. 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, December 11, 2023

34 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:17AM

Bob Cudmore Over 10 years Over 500 Interviews

A little weather in the weather this week, scroll down for The Mohawk Valley forecast

Thanks to Andrew Heck for the latest $100.00 donation

 Please help us continue The Historians Podcast by making a donation.  Please contribute at https://gofund.me/777777e9  or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore, 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. $5280.00 the goal $7000.00 the next three weeks.

Sunday, December 10, 2023

Mohawk Valley Went to War in 1941

By Bob Cudmore

    Alton R. Swann, born in Schenectady, moved to Gloversville, went to high school and business school there and became an accountant at Schenectady General Electric.

   Drafted by the Army in May 1941, Swann was serving at Clark Air Base in the Philippines with the 803rd Engineer Battalion.

   The day after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, a Japanese bombing attack December 8 resulted in destruction of Clark Field.  Swann’s 803rd battalion was decimated in the battle for Bataan.  After being moved to the island fortress of Corregidor, Swann was captured.

   He survived a death march, three years of prison in the Philippines and Japan including a trip to Japan aboard a "hell" ship, the Noto Maru.

   In Japan he was used as slave labor.  Liberated after the Japanese surrender, he was aboard a hospital ship when he wrote his fiancé, Glendean Brooks in Gloversville, asking if she was still waiting for him.

   She was.  Swann married Brooks at the Gloversville Methodist Church parsonage Thanksgiving afternoon, 1945.  Swann went back to work at GE, was transferred to New England and lived many years in Monroe, Connecticut.

   James V. Hogg from Amsterdam was on a Navy ship somewhere in the Pacific when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

   His niece Karen terHaar said, “In the months after Pearl Harbor, many ships in the area were ordered to maintain radio silence. The families of crew members did not know if their fathers, sons or brothers were dead or alive.”

   Hogg’s parents, Frank and Mildred Hogg, were living on Grant Avenue in Amsterdam.

   TerHaar wrote, “About four months after Pearl Harbor, Mom was sitting on the front porch when she heard the postman’s voice. She looked up and saw him running down the sidewalk. He was waving a letter and yelling, ‘Jimmy’s alive! Jimmy’s alive!’”

   James Hogg became a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy and married a woman from Australia. He later lived in California.

   An Amsterdam soldier died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 82 years ago.  William E. Hasenfuss, Jr. came from a family of nine on Northampton Road.

   Hasenfuss had flown planes at an air field in Perth before enlisting in the Army in 1939.  He died when Japanese airplanes shot up the B-24 bomber Hasenfuss and his ground crew were working on at Hickam Air Field in Hawaii.

Tomorrow, Monday, December 11, 2023-Story behind the story-Some of Pearl Harbor attack’s local effects (Podcast 5 Minutes)

   His mother, Frieda, Amsterdam’s first World War II Gold Star Mother, christened the light cruiser U.S.S. Amsterdam in 1944 at Newport News, Virginia.

   “I was thinking of William when I smashed that bottle.” she said after the vessel slid into the James River.

   A model of USS Amsterdam was handmade by the late Albert M. Swager of Pennsylvania, a former crewman, who donated it to Amsterdam’s Walter Elwood Museum.  Volunteers are working on an exhibit.

   The movie “South of Tahiti,” playing at the Strand Theatre on East Main Street in Amsterdam, was interrupted Sunday afternoon December 7, 1941 when the news broke that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.  Radio coverage was piped into the theater and dazed patrons left the building.

   George A. Tralka, 15, was at his family’s James Street home in Amsterdam when he heard about the attack on the radio.  At first Tralka thought Pearl Harbor was in Alaska.

      The next day as Tralka delivered the Schenectady Gazette he heard President Roosevelt’s “day of infamy” speech on the radio when at Reid Hill Pharmacy.

“It was a solemn moment in the drug store,” Tralka wrote in his memoir, “Diary of a Replacement Soldier.”  Tralka survived the war and became a physician in the Washington, D.C. area. 

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, December 10, 2023

49 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:54AM

Bob Cudmore The Historians 500 episodes since the podcast started in 2014.  Please help us continue The Historians Podcast by making a donation.  Please contribute at https://gofund.me/777777e9  or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore, 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. $5180.00 the goal $7000.00 over the next three weeks. Thanks

Bob Cudmore this weekend The Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder The Historians on Sunday

https://www.dailygazette.com/

Focus on History-Some of Pearl Harbor attack’s local effects

Alton R. Swann, born in Schenectady, moved to Gloversville, went to high school and business school there and became an accountant at Schenectady General Electric.

   Drafted by the Army in May 1941, Swann was serving at Clark Air Base in the Philippines with the 803rd Engineer Battalion.

Bob Cudmore on "the radio" today at noon

WCSS Amsterdam 106.9FM and WKAJ St. Johnsville 97.9FM

Noon

Saturday, December 9, 2023-Episode 502-Jack Kelly is author of God Save Benedict Arnold. Arnold committed treason. Yet he was more than a turncoat—Kelly argues Arnold’s achievements during the early years of the Revolutionary War defined him as the most successful soldier of the era.

12:30

Saturday, December 9, 2023-Episode 357-Lawyer and historian Jim Kaplan looks at the lives of financier Bruce Wasserstein and his sister, playwright Wendy Wasserstein, key figures in the revival of New York City in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Saturday, December 9, 2023

Bob Cudmores conversation with Steve Haggerty

Steve Haggerty is author of Norman Rockwell’s Models: In and Out of the Studio. In 1940, illustrator Norman Rockwell, his wife Mary and their three sons moved to West Arlington, Vermont. The artist discovered a treasure trove of models. Haggerty’s book‘details these models’ lives, friendships with the artist and experiences in his studio.

Amsterdam changes after Pearl Harbor attack

By Bob Cudmore

   The movie “South of Tahiti” playing at the Strand Theatre on East Main Street in Amsterdam was interrupted Sunday afternoon December 7, 1941 when the news broke that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.  Radio coverage was piped into the theater and dazed patrons left the building.

   The Amsterdam Clubs Association met later that day at St. Michael’s Club on Reid Street.  According to the late Robert Going’s book on World War II, “Where Do We Find Such Men,” attorney Frederick Partyka urged “member groups to be devoted to true Americanism.”

   George A. Tralka, 15, was at his family’s James Street home in Amsterdam when he heard about the attack on the radio.  Tralka at first thought Pearl Harbor was in Alaska.

   Tralka’s parents, Joseph and Martha, went ahead with their plans to go out that Sunday and to have George watch his younger sisters. 

   The next day as young Tralka delivered the Schenectady Gazette he heard President Roosevelt’s “day of infamy” speech on the radio when making his delivery to Reid Hill Pharmacy.

   “It was a solemn moment in the drug store,” Tralka wrote in his memoir, “Diary of a Replacement Soldier.”  Tralka survived the war and became a physician in the Washington, D.C. area.   

   An Amsterdam soldier died in the Japanese attack.  William E. Hasenfuss, Jr. came from a family of nine children who lived on Northampton Road.

   Hasenfuss had flown planes at an air field in Perth before enlisting in the Army in 1939.  He died at Hickam Air Field in Hawaii.  Japanese airplanes shot up the B-24 bomber Hasenfuss and his ground crew were working on.  Every member of the crew was hit.  News of Hasenfuss’s death reached Amsterdam December 10.

   His mother, Frieda, Amsterdam’s first World War II Gold Star Mother, christened the light cruiser U.S.S. Amsterdam on April 25, 1944 at Newport News, Virginia.

   “I was thinking of William when I smashed that bottle.” she said as the vessel slid into the James River.

   The Amsterdam was one of the ships in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrendered.  Serving onboard was Steve Fitz of Schenectady who became a popular radio talk show host back home.

   Two days after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor the sports pages of the Amsterdam Recorder ran a column which wondered how long local basketball would last as the war went on.

   Bowling was still going strong in December 1941.  My uncle Percy Cudmore was leading the City League with a 192 bowling average. 

   Cudmore enlisted in the Army, overcoming initial objections to his age, he was 36, and blood pressure.  During his time overseas, he was able to visit family members then living in Pontypridd, Wales.  When he saw his Aunt Emma Copp Vodden, he said she looked like Cudmore’s mother Elizabeth who had died in 1934.  While visiting the Voddens he played ball with his cousin Ethel.

   Cudmore’s eldest son, Roger, said his father was in the artillery and blamed that for hearing problems later in life.  He fought in North Africa against German General Erwin Rommel’s forces and possibly in Italy.

   An Amsterdam newspaper article from 1943 quoted Corporal Cudmore expressing concern for a lackluster performance by his old bowling team.   The sports reporter wrote, “As for Cudmore himself, you can bet all the family heirlooms that he will be bowling as soon as he gets back to the good old USA.”

   Cudmore was back in Amsterdam in 1945.  He started bowling again, rolling a 269 single in November, near the date that he and school teacher Pansy Keller married.  She too was a good bowler.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, December 9, 2023

44 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:14AM

Bob Cudmore in print This Weekend and The Historians this Sunday

The Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder-Focus on History-Some of Pearl Harbor attack’s local effects

Thursday

Amsterdam changes after Pearl Harbor attack

By Bob Cudmore

   The movie “South of Tahiti” playing at the Strand Theatre on East Main Street in Amsterdam was interrupted Sunday afternoon December 7, 1941 when the news broke that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.  Radio coverage was piped into the theater and dazed patrons left the building.

   The Amsterdam Clubs Association met later that day at St. Michael’s Club on Reid Street.  According to the late Robert Going’s book on World War II, “Where Do We Find Such Men,” attorney Frederick Partyka urged “member groups to be devoted to true Americanism.”

   George A. Tralka, 15, was at his family’s James Street home in Amsterdam when he heard about the attack on the radio.  Tralka at first thought Pearl Harbor was in Alaska.

   Tralka’s parents, Joseph and Martha, went ahead with their plans to go out that Sunday and to have George watch his younger sisters. 

   The next day as young Tralka delivered the Schenectady Gazette he heard President Roosevelt’s “day of infamy” speech on the radio when making his delivery to Reid Hill Pharmacy.

   “It was a solemn moment in the drug store,” Tralka wrote in his memoir, “Diary of a Replacement Soldier.”  Tralka survived the war and became a physician in the Washington, D.C. area.   

   An Amsterdam soldier died in the Japanese attack.  William E. Hasenfuss, Jr. came from a family of nine children who lived on Northampton Road.

   Hasenfuss had flown planes at an air field in Perth before enlisting in the Army in 1939.  He died at Hickam Air Field in Hawaii.  Japanese airplanes shot up the B-24 bomber Hasenfuss and his ground crew were working on.  Every member of the crew was hit.  News of Hasenfuss’s death reached Amsterdam December 10.

   His mother, Frieda, Amsterdam’s first World War II Gold Star Mother, christened the light cruiser U.S.S. Amsterdam on April 25, 1944 at Newport News, Virginia.

   “I was thinking of William when I smashed that bottle.” she said as the vessel slid into the James River.

   The Amsterdam was one of the ships in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrendered.  Serving onboard was Steve Fitz of Schenectady who became a popular radio talk show host back home.

   Two days after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor the sports pages of the Amsterdam Recorder ran a column which wondered how long local basketball would last as the war went on.

   Bowling was still going strong in December 1941.  My uncle Percy Cudmore was leading the City League with a 192 bowling average. 

   Cudmore enlisted in the Army, overcoming initial objections to his age, he was 36, and blood pressure.  During his time overseas, he was able to visit family members then living in Pontypridd, Wales.  When he saw his Aunt Emma Copp Vodden, he said she looked like Cudmore’s mother Elizabeth who had died in 1934.  While visiting the Voddens he played ball with his cousin Ethel.

   Cudmore’s eldest son, Roger, said his father was in the artillery and blamed that for hearing problems later in life.  He fought in North Africa against German General Erwin Rommel’s forces and possibly in Italy.

   An Amsterdam newspaper article from 1943 quoted Corporal Cudmore expressing concern for a lackluster performance by his old bowling team.   The sports reporter wrote, “As for Cudmore himself, you can bet all the family heirlooms that he will be bowling as soon as he gets back to the good old USA.”

   Cudmore was back in Amsterdam in 1945.  He started bowling again, rolling a 269 single in November, near the date that he and school teacher Pansy Keller married.  She too was a good bowler.

Friday, December 8, 2023-Episode 502-Jack Kelly is author of God Save Benedict Arnold.  Arnold committed treason.  Yet he was more than a turncoat—Kelly argues Arnold’s achievements during the early years of the Revolutionary War defined him as the most successful soldier of the era.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, December 7, 2023

18 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 4:49AM

Bob Cudmore in print This Weekend

The Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder-Focus on History-Some of Pearl Harbor attack’s local effects

Go Fund Me

$1820 needed by Sunday, December 31, 2023 Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. Down to 25 Days and counting. On-line Go Fund Me https://gofund.me/777777e9

Wednesday 

T Martin Bennett, author of “Wounded Tiger”: The story of the Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Wounded Tiger is the true story of the pilot who led the Pearl Harbor Attack, whose life was changed by an American prisoner and by a girl he never met. Three incredibly different people have their paths cross in ways so remarkable as to almost be unbelievable if it weren't so well documented.

Thursday, December 7 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam and Pearl Harbor

The movie “South of Tahiti” playing at the Strand Theatre on East Main Street in Amsterdam was interrupted Sunday afternoon December 7, 1941 when the news broke that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.  Radio coverage was piped into the theater and dazed patrons left the building.

Friday, December 8, 2023-Episode 502-Jack Kelly is author of God Save Benedict Arnold.  Arnold committed treason.  Yet he was more than a turncoat—Kelly argues Arnold’s achievements during the early years of the Revolutionary War defined him as the most successful soldier of the era.

Amsterdam rugs go down in history

By Bob Cudmore

Two articles found on a floor covering news Website, www.rugnews.com, tell stories about commemorative rugs with connections to Amsterdam.

One article describes how Costikyan, a rug and tapestry-cleaning firm founded in 1886, restored the Liberty Rug, woven in Amsterdam’s East End in 1916 by the Shuttleworth Brothers factory.

In 1920, Shuttleworth merged with McCleary, Wallin and Crouse to form Mohawk Carpets in Amsterdam. The company reorganized as Mohasco in 1955 when it merged with Alexander Smith carpets of Yonkers. Production and offices ultimately left Amsterdam for Georgia and elsewhere.

The Liberty Rug was one of 20 Axminster carpets woven in Amsterdam to mark the initial floodlighting ceremony at the Statue of Liberty in New York on December 2, 1916. The rug recently restored was presented to President Woodrow Wilson. It originally was installed in President Wilson’s bedroom at the White House. The restored rug is now on display at Woodrow Wilson House, the late President’s library in Washington, D.C.

According to www.rugnews.com, an image of the Statue of Liberty is in the center of the rug, surrounded by depictions of Niagara Falls, the Mayflower, Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Washington Monument, the Capitol, and Native American teepees. Also shown is aviatrix Ruth Law flying over the Statue of Liberty in a biplane during the floodlighting ceremony.

In a separate opinion piece, Lissa Wyman of www.rugnews.com weighs in on commemorative rugs made in the Mohasco days. Wyman reported she was presented a 1776 Rug during the 1976 bicentennial by the Alexander Smith division of Mohasco. Several thousand of these five by eight foot rugs were woven and presented to political leaders and other dignitaries. Wyman at the time was editor of the trade magazine, Floor Covering News.

Wyman wrote that even though she hung the rug for many years in her New York City apartment, she was no fan of the design, calling it “the ugliest piece of textiles it has ever been my misfortune to view.”

But Wyman told her readers that now that her own 1776 Rug has been misplaced, she would like to find an image of it.

The background of the rug was an unfurled American flag, Wyman wrote. Landing on the flag was a really eagle-eyed American Eagle, wings spread and clutching a mean-looking bunch of arrows. It had to be hung, of course. Walking on it risked being charged with Desecration of The Flag.

Thanks to reader and Amsterdam native Larry Baldine for finding these articles. 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, December 6, 2023

29 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:58AM

$1820 needed by Sunday, December 31, 2023 Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

-1 down to 26 Days and counting

  On-line Go Fund Me https://gofund.me/777777e9  

Amsterdam rugs go down in history

By Bob Cudmore

Two articles found on a floor covering news Website, www.rugnews.com, tell stories about commemorative rugs with connections to Amsterdam.

One article describes how Costikyan, a rug and tapestry-cleaning firm founded in 1886, restored the Liberty Rug, woven in Amsterdam’s East End in 1916 by the Shuttleworth Brothers factory.

In 1920, Shuttleworth merged with McCleary, Wallin and Crouse to form Mohawk Carpets in Amsterdam. The company reorganized as Mohasco in 1955 when it merged with Alexander Smith carpets of Yonkers. Production and offices ultimately left Amsterdam for Georgia and elsewhere.

The Liberty Rug was one of 20 Axminster carpets woven in Amsterdam to mark the initial floodlighting ceremony at the Statue of Liberty in New York on December 2, 1916. The rug recently restored was presented to President Woodrow Wilson. It originally was installed in President Wilson’s bedroom at the White House. The restored rug is now on display at Woodrow Wilson House, the late President’s library in Washington, D.C.

According to www.rugnews.com, an image of the Statue of Liberty is in the center of the rug, surrounded by depictions of Niagara Falls, the Mayflower, Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Washington Monument, the Capitol, and Native American teepees. Also shown is aviatrix Ruth Law flying over the Statue of Liberty in a biplane during the floodlighting ceremony.

In a separate opinion piece, Lissa Wyman of www.rugnews.com weighs in on commemorative rugs made in the Mohasco days. Wyman reported she was presented a 1776 Rug during the 1976 bicentennial by the Alexander Smith division of Mohasco. Several thousand of these five by eight foot rugs were woven and presented to political leaders and other dignitaries. Wyman at the time was editor of the trade magazine, Floor Covering News.

Wyman wrote that even though she hung the rug for many years in her New York City apartment, she was no fan of the design, calling it “the ugliest piece of textiles it has ever been my misfortune to view.”

But Wyman told her readers that now that her own 1776 Rug has been misplaced, she would like to find an image of it.

The background of the rug was an unfurled American flag, Wyman wrote. Landing on the flag was a really eagle-eyed American Eagle, wings spread and clutching a mean-looking bunch of arrows. It had to be hung, of course. Walking on it risked being charged with Desecration of The Flag.

Thanks to reader and Amsterdam native Larry Baldine for finding these articles.

T. Martin Bennett

Wednesday, December 6, 2023-From the Archives- Episode 139, November 25, 2016-T Martin Bennett, author of “Wounded Tiger”: The story of the Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Wounded Tiger is the true story of the pilot who led the Pearl Harbor Attack, whose life was changed by an American prisoner and by a girl he never met. Three incredibly different people have their paths cross in ways so remarkable as to almost be unbelievable if it weren't so well documented.

Thursday, December 7 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam and Pearl Harbor

Friday, December 8, 2023-Episode 502-Jack Kelly is author of God Save Benedict Arnold.  Arnold committed treason.  Yet he was more than a turncoat—Kelly argues Arnold’s achievements during the early years of the Revolutionary War defined him as the most successful soldier of the era. 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, December 5, 2023

36 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:08AM

$1820 by December 31, 2023 $455.00 a week(stuff a check in the mailbox)Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

27 Days and counting

Thanks to Dave Northrup, Scott Lorenz and Katie Balevic for the latest and very generous donations to our fund raising campaign for The Historians Podcast.  Please make a contribution today to honor our 502 Episodes.  Make donations online for The Historians Podcast at our Go Fund Me page https://gofund.me/777777e9  or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  We need to raise an additional $1820 by December 31 to reach our $7000 goal for 2023.  

Monday, December 4 , 2023-Story behind the story-the story of the Amsterdam highway that wasn’t built.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Amsterdam rugs go down in history

Two articles found on a floor covering news Website, www.rugnews.com tell stories about commemorative rugs with connections to Amsterdam.

Wednesday, December 6, 2023-From the Archives- Episode 139, November 25, 2016-T Martin Bennett, author of “Wounded Tiger”: The story of the Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Thursday, December 7 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam and Pearl Harbor

Friday, December 8, 2023-Episode 502-Jack Kelly is author of God Save Benedict Arnold.  Arnold committed treason.  Yet he was more than a turncoat—Kelly argues Arnold’s achievements during the early years of the Revolutionary War defined him as the most successful soldier of the era. 

The superhighway that wasn’t built

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History 

   Amsterdam was once proposed as the western end of a 419-mile, four-lane road called the east-west highway or Interstate 92.

   The eastern end of the highway would have been at Calais, Maine, on the Canadian border.  The idea was to open up northern sections of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine to economic development. 

   Two successive Amsterdam mayors traveled to New England in support of the project.

   In 1967 Amsterdam Republican Mayor Marcus Breier was enthusiastic after attending a campaign kickoff for the highway in Portland, Maine. 

   I-92 booster W. Bartlett Cram, an industrial consultant from Bangor, Maine, argued that access to the New York State Thruway in Amsterdam would give northern New Englanders a way to increase trade not only with New York City to the south but also with the Midwest.

   Amsterdam also was picked on the basis of the lay of the land.  Cram said to move the road a few miles east or west from the city would add significantly to the cost because of steeper grades

   Cram pitched the highway before a crowd of 125 business and community leaders at the local Tepee restaurant.

   Cram said the road would have a seventy mile per hour speed limit.  Realistically, he said, the federal government would not be able to contribute its proposed ninety percent share of the cost until the Vietnam War ended.

   Later that year there was opposition from Vermont.  Governor Philip H. Hoff said he was "totally against" the Amsterdam to Calais plan.  He wanted a highway but favored a more northern route. 

   Others wanted a western end of the highway in Glens Falls, not Amsterdam.  There also were environmental concerns. 

   In 1969 Amsterdam’s Democratic Mayor John Gomulka led a four-car caravan carrying city officials on a trip along the proposed highway’s route. 

   There were welcoming parties in Saratoga Springs, South Glens Falls, Hudson Falls, Fort Edward, Fort Ann and Whitehall.  Vermont State Police escorted the Amsterdamians to Rutland for coffee with the Chamber of Commerce.

   In New Hampshire there was another state police escort.  The group stopped at Meredith, Laconia and other villages.  State police in Maine escorted Mayor Gomulka and his party to dinner in Augusta. 

   The next day it was lunch with highway advocate Cram in Bangor.  The Mayor of Bangor, Ed Porter, gave Gomulka the key to his city.  The group continued on for dinner in Calais. 

   Despite the warm New England welcome, Mayor Gomulka told the Recorder he was not pleased with Amsterdam’s indifference to the highway proposal.

   "The one deplorable fact,” the mayor said, "was the lack of interest in the project locally.” 

   When he had asked local movers and shakers to join his caravan to Calais, no one wanted to go.

  There was an effort to get Governor Nelson Rockefeller to assume leadership of the highway plan in 1970.  In January 1971 Time Magazine did a story on the east-west highway called “Road to Riches.”

  In 1971 retired Marine general Hamilton South, an Albany banker, told reporters, "There will be a road there one day, but if we don't do it now, it won't be done properly.  Instead a lot of crummy small highways will be built."

   The Federal Highway Administration rejected the Amsterdam to Calais plan.  Efforts continued to save the idea with the western end being Albany, Glens Falls or Schroon Lake, to no avail. 

   No east-west superhighway was ever built linking northern New York and northern New England.

TURN BACK TIME

   Thanks to reader Edward Clifford for pointing out an error in last week’s column.  The Battle of Saratoga took place in 1777, not 1977.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, December 4, 2023

42 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:14AM

$1820 by December 31, 2023

28 Days and counting

Thanks to Dave Northrup, Scott Lorenz and Katie Balevic for the latest and very generous donations to our fund raising campaign for The Historians Podcast.  Please make a contribution today to honor our 501 Episodes.  Make donations online for The Historians Podcast at our Go Fund Me page https://gofund.me/777777e9  or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  We need to raise an additional $1820 by December 31(we looked it up on Google, that is the last day of the year) to reach our $7000 goal for 2023.  

The superhighway that wasn’t built

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History 

   Amsterdam was once proposed as the western end of a 419-mile, four-lane road called the east-west highway or Interstate 92.

   The eastern end of the highway would have been at Calais, Maine, on the Canadian border.  The idea was to open up northern sections of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine to economic development. 

   Two successive Amsterdam mayors traveled to New England in support of the project.

   In 1967 Amsterdam Republican Mayor Marcus Breier was enthusiastic after attending a campaign kickoff for the highway in Portland, Maine. 

   I-92 booster W. Bartlett Cram, an industrial consultant from Bangor, Maine, argued that access to the New York State Thruway in Amsterdam would give northern New Englanders a way to increase trade not only with New York City to the south but also with the Midwest.

   Amsterdam also was picked on the basis of the lay of the land.  Cram said to move the road a few miles east or west from the city would add significantly to the cost because of steeper grades

   Cram pitched the highway before a crowd of 125 business and community leaders at the local Tepee restaurant.

   Cram said the road would have a seventy mile per hour speed limit.  Realistically, he said, the federal government would not be able to contribute its proposed ninety percent share of the cost until the Vietnam War ended.

   Later that year there was opposition from Vermont.  Governor Philip H. Hoff said he was "totally against" the Amsterdam to Calais plan.  He wanted a highway but favored a more northern route. 

   Others wanted a western end of the highway in Glens Falls, not Amsterdam.  There also were environmental concerns. 

   In 1969 Amsterdam’s Democratic Mayor John Gomulka led a four-car caravan carrying city officials on a trip along the proposed highway’s route. 

   There were welcoming parties in Saratoga Springs, South Glens Falls, Hudson Falls, Fort Edward, Fort Ann and Whitehall.  Vermont State Police escorted the Amsterdamians to Rutland for coffee with the Chamber of Commerce.

   In New Hampshire there was another state police escort.  The group stopped at Meredith, Laconia and other villages.  State police in Maine escorted Mayor Gomulka and his party to dinner in Augusta. 

   The next day it was lunch with highway advocate Cram in Bangor.  The Mayor of Bangor, Ed Porter, gave Gomulka the key to his city.  The group continued on for dinner in Calais. 

   Despite the warm New England welcome, Mayor Gomulka told the Recorder he was not pleased with Amsterdam’s indifference to the highway proposal.

   "The one deplorable fact,” the mayor said, "was the lack of interest in the project locally.” 

   When he had asked local movers and shakers to join his caravan to Calais, no one wanted to go.

  There was an effort to get Governor Nelson Rockefeller to assume leadership of the highway plan in 1970.  In January 1971 Time Magazine did a story on the east-west highway called “Road to Riches.”

  In 1971 retired Marine general Hamilton South, an Albany banker, told reporters, "There will be a road there one day, but if we don't do it now, it won't be done properly.  Instead a lot of crummy small highways will be built."

   The Federal Highway Administration rejected the Amsterdam to Calais plan.  Efforts continued to save the idea with the western end being Albany, Glens Falls or Schroon Lake, to no avail. 

   No east-west superhighway was ever built linking northern New York and northern New England.

TURN BACK TIME

   Thanks to reader Edward Clifford for pointing out an error in last week’s column.  The Battle of Saratoga took place in 1777, not 1977.

Monday, December 4 , 2023-Story behind the story-the story of the Amsterdam highway that wasn’t built.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam rugs go down in history

Wednesday, December 6, 2023-From the Archives- Episode 139, November 25, 2016-T Martin Bennett, author of “Wounded Tiger”: The story of the Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Thursday, December 7 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam and Pearl Harbor

Friday, December 8, 2023-Episode 502-Jack Kelly is author of God Save Benedict Arnold.  Arnold committed treason.  Yet he was more than a turncoat—Kelly argues Arnold’s achievements during the early years of the Revolutionary War defined him as the most successful soldier of the era. 

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, December 3, 2023

40 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:00AM