The Historians

This weekend in The Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder and hear on The Historians Sunday

Focus on History-Storming Fort Fisher in the Civil War by Bob Cudmore

So Far...

  We have raised $3735.00.  We still have a long way to go to reach our $7000 goal by year’s end.  Please donate online here: The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Thank You

David Fisk

Wednesday, September 27, 2023-From the Archives- Episode 99, February 21, 2016-David Fiske is author of “Solomon Northup’s Kindred: The Kidnapping of Free Citizens before the Civil War.”

Thursday, September 28, 2023

Tragedy at the laundry 

A steam pipe that broke in the boiler room of an Amsterdam laundry in 1947 claimed three lives, seriously injured another man and left Donald F. Lasher of Fort Johnson with indelible memories.

Friday, September 29, 2023-Episode 494-Highlights edition #5-Christopher Gorham with the story of FDR aide Anna Rosenberg; Gregg Ficery tracing the origin of the National Football League; Scott Shane chronicling the life of Thomas Smallwood, an African American who named the Underground Railroad and interviews from the 2015 Fort Plan Museum conference on the American Revolution.

Saturday, September 30, 2023-From the archives- Episode 472-In Unearthed Meryl Frank tells the story of her cousin Frany Winter, a celebrated Yiddish actress in Vilna in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust.  Frank spent many years researching how her cousin Frany died.

Sunday, October 1, 2023-Focus on History-Storming Fort Fisher in the Civil War 

In 1954 city had a celebration

By Bob Cudmore

   In July 1954, Amsterdam observed its 150th birthday with a ten-division parade.

   The Sesquicentennial, as it was called, was a joyous and raucous event that took place at the beginning of the end of the city’s prominence as a carpet-manufacturing center.

   One float in the parade was a flying carpet. Within a year, Bigelow-Sanford, one of the city’s two major carpet makers, was moving out of town.

   The sesquicentennial booklet contains a description of a dramatic spectacle called “Horizons” that played for seven nights that July at Mohawk Mills Park, today’s Shuttleworth Park. 

   Starting with the Mohawk Nation, the pageant showed scenes through Amsterdam’s history through the end of World War II with an optimistic conclusion about the future.  The final scene predicted that America is “certain to make the Atomic Age the age of Utopia.”

       The booklet features pictures of two queens of the celebration.  Dorothy Wozniak was Miss Amsterdam Sesquicentennial and Nancy O’Meara was Miss Mohawk Valley.

   One of the features of the 1954 celebration was creation of over 60 neighborhood chapters of the Brothers of the Brush, who did not shave, and Sisters of the Swish, who were long dresses.  Amsterdam’s many taverns were among the sponsors of these social clubs that held a kangaroo court, dances and otherwise engaged in revelry. 

   According to Tony Pacelli’s history book, “Past and Present,” the kangaroo court was at the corner of East Main Street and Vrooman Avenue.

   “If any member broke a rule, such as shaving or a change in costume they went before a judge and jury and were fined,” Pacelli wrote.  “I recall a friend of mine was to buy a keg of ale, another bought candy for the youngsters.”

   Harriet DePaulo was chairwoman of the Sisters and the chairman of the Brothers was Clement Ciulik. 

   The names of the chapters were indicative of the high spirits of the sesquicentennial season, which lasted about ten weeks and included a huge parade. 

   Sisters of the Swish chapters included the Swishers of Veddersburg, Jezebelles, Dizzy Dames, Flora Dorettes of Florida and the Gabby Ups.    

   Organizers produced a 50-cent souvenir program for the sesquicentennial.  There are fascinating stories in the sesquicentennial book giving details on businesses and institutions that existed in 1954.

       One advertisement entitled “This Is My Story” tells of Felix Dylong’s meat market at 39 Milton Avenue:

       “I came to Amsterdam in December, 1906.  As a young boy I looked for the golden opportunity, as did millions of others.  My first job was at the Sanford Carpet Mills.  I worked sixty hours a week at ten cents an hour.

       “I entered the U.S. Army March 11, 1914 and served through the Mexican trouble and World War I.  I was discharged in June 1920 with the rank of first sergeant.

       “Being the son of a small business family, I always dreamed of one day owning my own business.  In 1924, I bought the meat market business from my former employer.  In 1931, I purchased the building and expanded the store.  From 1924 to 1954, the store has been remodeled three times.  My older son, Felix, Junior, on completion of his military service is a partner in the business: Dylong & Son, dean in making Polish kielbasa.  Don’t just guess, buy the best.  Through our doors pass the nicest people in the world and we do appreciate them very much.”

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, September 27, 2023

46 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:38AM 

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

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Monday, September 25, 2023-Story behind the story-Amsterdam Carpet Mill Tales

Tuesday, September 26, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Memories of 1954 sesquicentennial

In July 1954, Amsterdam observed its 150th birthday with a ten-division parade.

   The Sesquicentennial, as it was called, was a joyous and raucous event that took place at the beginning of the end of the city’s prominence as a carpet-manufacturing center.

Wednesday, September 27, 2023-From the Archives- Episode 99, February 21, 2016-David Fiske is author of “Solomon Northup’s Kindred: The Kidnapping of Free Citizens before the Civil War.”

Thursday, September 28, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Tragedy at the laundry 

Friday, September 29, 2023-Episode 494-Highlights edition #5-Christopher Gorham with the story of FDR aide Anna Rosenberg; Gregg Ficery tracing the origin of the National Football League; Scott Shane chronicling the life of Thomas Smallwood, an African American who named the Underground Railroad and interviews from the 2015 Fort Plan Museum conference on the American Revolution.

We recently received generous donations fot the Historians Podcast yearly fund drive from John Woodward, an anonymous donor, Bob Burns and Thanks to Scott Lorenz.  We have raised $3735.00.  We still have a long way to go to reach our $7000 goal by year’s end.  Please donate online here: The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Amsterdam carpet mill tales

by Bob Cudmore

   It was a rough Atlantic crossing for James Kindon, an English weaver who sailed for America in the 1890s.

   "On Sunday, we encountered a very heavy gale of wind and rain,” Kindon wrote in his journal.  “The rain was so strong that it blew the waves mountains high. Time after time the waves came, sweeping the deck clear.”

   Kindon had a fiddle for entertainment and “plenty of eatables” for the trip including ham, biscuits, jam, brandy and ginger ale.

   In America, Kindon found work at Burlington Carpet Mills in Mount Holly, New Jersey but left in 1892 to join the ranks of carpet workers in Amsterdam.

   Kindon faced hard times in 1893 but started weaving in 1894. He kept track of the lengths of carpet he wove each day and time spent servicing the loom.

   He translated the pay he received in dollars into English pounds. He kept a record of the girls he courted.

   The 1910 city directory listed James Kindon, weaver, and his wife Ada living at 12 Eagle Street in the East End. By that time, immigrants from Poland, Italy, Lithuania, Russia and elsewhere were flocking to Amsterdam.

   By the 1930s the Kindons were living at 55 Stewart Street.  James Kindon, still living on Stewart Street, retired from his duties as a weaver at Mohawk Carpet Mills in 1955, when he was 81.

   He had worked 62 years at the plant, founded by brothers from England named Shuttleworth.  Shortly before Kindon’s retirement, Amsterdam’s other major carpet factory, Bigelow Sanford, had announced it was leaving the city later that year. 

   Kindon’s son J. Artisan Kindon, who had become an assistant superintendent of Mohawk’s tapestry division, died in May of that year.  Father and son were active members of Masonic organizations.  The Kindons worshipped at Second Presbyterian Church.

   James Kindon died in April 1957 at age 83. His wife Ada lived into the 1960s and was last reported living at a nursing home in Penn Yan, New York.

WOMEN WORKED TOO

   Ann Peconie, executive director of the Walter Elwood Museum, said you can learn a lot from the dress, jewelry and demeanor of women photographed in the mills.

   Peconie said one of her favorite pictures shows a woman tending a machine, looking at the camera and sporting a bracelet and high heels, “I make jokes saying the woman seems to be saying she would rather be in another place at another time.”

   Women only could have certain factory jobs. Peconie said she never heard of a woman carpet weaver. Women often were creelers.  Creelers made sure the loom was tied into yarn spindles or bobbins.

   “My grandmother had a little knife around her finger to cut and then tie the yarn,” Peconie said.  Her grandmother added that weavers sometimes were mean men.

   “Women worked when they were sick, when they were pregnant,” Peconie said. “They tried to hide their conditions from the bosses. They only had stools to sit on, no backs.  If a woman was ill, other women would cover, letting the woman (who was sick) lie down on the factory floor on top of her coat. Camaraderie developed over time.”

   Amsterdam native Alberta Zierak Fondacaro said, “When I was a child my aunts would bring me yarn dolls that were made from scraps of wool.

   “They lied about their ages and started working in the factories when they were youngsters to help support the family.

   “I still have a discarded bolt of yarn. They even showed me how to determine a fine woolen rug from a poorly-weaved one. These women were pioneers who didn't complain of hardships.”

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, September 25, 2023

57 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 4:46AM 

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Sunday, September 24, 2023 on The Historians

Cudmore Print stories on the site this week

Amsterdam carpet mill tales

Memories of 1954 sesquicentennial

Tragedy at the laundry 

We recently received generous donations fot the Historians Podcast yearly fund drive from John Woodward, an anonymous donor, Bob Burns and Thanks to Scott Lorenz.  We have raised $3735.00.  We still have a long way to go to reach our $7000 goal by year’s end.  Please donate online here: The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Bob Cudmore in The Daily Gazette every Weekend

Amsterdam carpet mill tales

   It was a rough Atlantic crossing for James Kindon, an English weaver who sailed for America in the 1890s.

   "On Sunday, we encountered a very heavy gale of wind and rain,” Kindon wrote in his journal.  “The rain was so strong that it blew the waves mountains high. Time after time the waves came, sweeping the deck clear.”

   Kindon had a fiddle for entertainment and “plenty of eatables” for the trip including ham, biscuits, jam, brandy and ginger ale.

   In America, Kindon found work at Burlington Carpet Mills in Mount Holly, New Jersey but left in 1892 to join the ranks of carpet workers in Amsterdam.

   Kindon faced hard times in 1893 but started weaving in 1894. He kept track of the lengths of carpet he wove each day and time spent servicing the loom.

   He translated the pay he received in dollars into English pounds. He kept a record of the girls he courted.

   The 1910 city directory listed James Kindon, weaver, and his wife Ada living at 12 Eagle Street in the East End. By that time, immigrants from Poland, Italy, Lithuania, Russia and elsewhere were flocking to Amsterdam.

   By the 1930s the Kindons were living at 55 Stewart Street.  James Kindon, still living on Stewart Street, retired from his duties as a weaver at Mohawk Carpet Mills in 1955, when he was 81.

   He had worked 62 years at the plant, founded by brothers from England named Shuttleworth.  Shortly before Kindon’s retirement, Amsterdam’s other major carpet factory, Bigelow Sanford, had announced it was leaving the city later that year. 

   Kindon’s son J. Artisan Kindon, who had become an assistant superintendent of Mohawk’s tapestry division, died in May of that year.  Father and son were active members of Masonic organizations.  The Kindons worshipped at Second Presbyterian Church.

   James Kindon died in April 1957 at age 83. His wife Ada lived into the 1960s and was last reported living at a nursing home in Penn Yan, New York.

WOMEN WORKED TOO

   Ann Peconie, executive director of the Walter Elwood Museum, said you can learn a lot from the dress, jewelry and demeanor of women photographed in the mills.

   Peconie said one of her favorite pictures shows a woman tending a machine, looking at the camera and sporting a bracelet and high heels, “I make jokes saying the woman seems to be saying she would rather be in another place at another time.”

   Women only could have certain factory jobs. Peconie said she never heard of a woman carpet weaver. Women often were creelers.  Creelers made sure the loom was tied into yarn spindles or bobbins.

   “My grandmother had a little knife around her finger to cut and then tie the yarn,” Peconie said.  Her grandmother added that weavers sometimes were mean men.

   “Women worked when they were sick, when they were pregnant,” Peconie said. “They tried to hide their conditions from the bosses. They only had stools to sit on, no backs.  If a woman was ill, other women would cover, letting the woman (who was sick) lie down on the factory floor on top of her coat. Camaraderie developed over time.”

   Amsterdam native Alberta Zierak Fondacaro said, “When I was a child my aunts would bring me yarn dolls that were made from scraps of wool.

   “They lied about their ages and started working in the factories when they were youngsters to help support the family.

   “I still have a discarded bolt of yarn. They even showed me how to determine a fine woolen rug from a poorly-weaved one. These women were pioneers who didn't complain of hardships.”

Monday, September 25, 2023-Story behind the story-Amsterdam Carpet Mill Tales

Tuesday, September 26, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Memories of 1954 sesquicentennial

Wednesday, September 27, 2023-From the Archives- Episode 99, February 21, 2016-David Fiske is author of “Solomon Northup’s Kindred: The Kidnapping of Free Citizens before the Civil War.”

Thursday, September 28, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Tragedy at the laundry 

Friday, September 29, 2023-Episode 494-Highlights edition #5-Christopher Gorham with the story of FDR aide Anna Rosenberg; Gregg Ficery tracing the origin of the National Football League; Scott Shane chronicling the life of Thomas Smallwood, an African American who named the Underground Railroad and interviews from the 2015 Fort Plan Museum conference on the American Revolution.

Episode 493-Scott Shane, author of Flee North- A forgotten hero and the fight for freedom in slavery’s borderland.  The book traces the life of Thomas Smallwood, an African American who named the Underground Railroad.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, September 24, 2023

54 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:43AM 

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Post Office murals still grab attention

By Bob Cudmore 

Two murals at the Amsterdam Post Office painted in 1939 continue to generate interest, not only from postal customers but also from people who collect stamps.

The September/October issue of “Stamp Insider” magazine has a view of the murals taken in 1947 for a “National Geographic” story.  The picture shows young women buying stamps from postal clerks whose windows are below the mural depicting Colonial settler Sir William Johnson holding an outdoor meeting with Mohawk Indian chiefs. 

Focus on History contributor Emil Suda spotted the recent magazine picture contributed by Ronald K. Ratchford, historian of the Schenectady Stamp Club.

H.E. Schnakenberg painted the Amsterdam murals in 1939 as part of a federal government effort called the Treasury Department Art Projects.

Hugh Donlon, in his “Annals of a Mill Town,” said that colonist Johnson is depicted with a sword cane, one of the heirlooms still remaining at Johnson Hall in Johnstown.  Donlon said Schnakenberg used exhibits in Albany and Washington to come up with his ideas on Indian dress.

Schnakenberg’s second mural depicts life on the Erie Canal in the 1840s when the community called Port Jackson was a canal stop.  Port Jackson became the South Side of Amsterdam.  Donlon said Schnakenberg took details for the canal mural from stills from the 1935 movie “The Farmer Takes a Wife,” starring Henry Fonda and Janet Gaynor.

Schnakenberg was born in 1892 in Brighton, New York according to the Web site AskArt.  He was following in his father’s footsteps in the insurance business when he went to an art show and was convinced to follow a career in art.  He died in 1970 in Newtown, Connecticut and is remembered for his landscapes.

His Amsterdam murals were restored by artist Luci Suhr in 1974. 

The murals were painted three years after the post office was built south of the library on Church Street.  The post office was a Depression-era public works project, designed by U.S. Treasury architect Louis Simony in the Colonial revival style.

The 1936 post office replaced a post office and federal building that had been constructed at Division and Wall Streets.

Historian Donlon said there was a quarter-century worth of complaints that the Division and Wall location was too far from the downtown business district.  Earlier, the post office in Amsterdam had occupied buildings on East Main and Market Streets.  The first Amsterdam post office opened in December 1803 at 20 Main Street.  The postmaster was James Downs.

GREEN HILL CEMETERY

The Green Hill Cemetery Association in Amsterdam had 50 people on a recent guided walking tour of the National Historic Landmark, located off Church Street in Amsterdam. 

According to tour organizer Alessa Wylie, a trustee of the cemetery, Green Hill is part of what’s called the rural cemetery movement, even though it is located in the middle of a city.

Fourteen acres of land was purchased for Green Hill Cemetery in 1857 and landscape designer-engineer Burton A. Thomas was hired to lay out the grounds. 

Thomas also designed Vale Cemetery in Schenectady and Albany Rural Cemetery.

The rural cemetery movement involved preserving tall shade trees, adding roads and footpaths and trimming vegetation to create vistas overlooking the city and Mohawk Valley. 

Green Hill was dedicated on September 1,1858 and at the end of the Civil War in 1865, an additional 36 acres of land was purchased.

Wylie said interments ranged from mill workers and domestic servants to the city’s most prominent industrial leaders, such as the mausoleum of the Sanford family, founders of one of the city’s major carpet mills.  Plots also were allocated to civic and veterans’ organizations and the poor.

Saturday, September 23, 2023-From the archives- May 12, 2023-Episode 474-New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan reports on how Harlem was economically developed in the early 1900s.  Jewish financiers joined with Black realtor Phillip Payton to improve race relations in New York City.

Amsterdam Carpet Mill Tales

In The Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder this weekend and on The Historians this Sunday

September 24, 2023-Focus on History

It was a rough Atlantic crossing for James Kindon, an English weaver who sailed for America in the 1890s.

   "On Sunday, we encountered a very heavy gale of wind and rain,” Kindon wrote in his journal. 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, September 21, 2023

48 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:14AM 

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Wednesday, September 20, 2023-From the Archives- May 5, 2023-Episode 473-Bob Cudmore provides a Focus on History podcast with topics including an eccentric philosopher, the Demskys of Eagle Street, Amsterdam’s agile mayor Burt Deal and how boxing flourished in 1930s Amsterdam.  Dave Greene remembers boxing great Jake LaMotta.

Thursday, September 21, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam Post Office murals

Two murals at the Amsterdam Post Office painted in 1939 continue to generate interest, not only from postal customers but also from people who collect stamps.

Scott Shane

Friday, September 22, 2023-Episode 493-Scott Shane, author of Flee North- A forgotten hero and the fight for freedom in slavery’s borderland.  The book traces the life of Thomas Smallwood, an African American who named the Underground Railroad.

Benedict Arnold buried in Amsterdam

By Bob Cudmore

       This may be April 1 but trust me when I say that Benedict Arnold is buried in Amsterdam’s Green Hill Cemetery.

       Amsterdam’s Benedict Arnold was not related to the Revolutionary War traitor of the same name, a fact noted by the Library of Congress when the Mohawk Valley man died in 1849.

       However, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia contends that Arnold, born October 5 1780, was named in honor of the infamous traitor.  Wikipedia speculates that the original Benedict Arnold was still regarded as a hero until his plans to betray the fort at West Point were found out on September 23, 1780. 

Wikipedia states, “Either the news took longer than this to make its way upstate, or his parents were of Loyalist sympathy; the latter seems unlikely, however, as they seem to have remained in the area despite widespread emigration of loyalists to Canada.”

       Some accounts say the local Benedict Arnold was born in Rennselaer County while others list his birthplace as Florida or what is now Amsterdam.   By 1808, he was operating a store in Amsterdam, first at the corner of Market and Bridge streets and then moving across the intersection to Market and Main.

       Arnold was one of the founders of the Amsterdam Aqueduct Company in 1829.  The company laid pipes west of the Chuctanunda Creek to bring water to thirsty citizens.

       Arnold served as a member of the New York State Assembly in 1816.  He was a member of Congress from 1829 to 1831 during the administration of President Andrew Jackson, although he was politically opposed to Jackson.

       When he returned from Washington, Arnold was among those who led the campaign to incorporate Amsterdam as a village.  He was the second president of the village board in 1832.  He was town of Amsterdam supervisor from 1835 to 1836 and, in 1844, was one of the organizers of the Fonda Fair.

       His Market Street home was a landmark torn down for construction of the Blood Building, now the site of the Best Western Hotel.

       Arnold was described in local accounts as a major general.  He apparently was a general in the New York State militia, the 19th century version of a standing army. 

       Also buried at Green Hill Cemetery is Arnold’s grandson, Lieutenant Benedict Arnold Leonard, who was killed in 1864 in the battle of Spotsylvania Court House, the lieutenant’s twelfth Civil War Battle.

       Arnold Avenue and the former Arnold Avenue School, built in 1891, were named in honor of the good Benedict Arnold and his family.

       Green Hill Cemetery was created in 1858, nine years after Arnold’s death.  Presumably, his body was moved there from another location.

       Arnold’s grave is just one of the important historic markers in the cemetery, which has come upon hard times in recent years.  Officials of the cemetery association fear if their current fund raising campaign is not successful, the organization may cease to exist.  Donations can be sent to: Green Hill Cemetery Association, 164 West Main Street, Amsterdam, N.Y. 12010.

       The Association is looking for new board members.  If you are among the thousands with relatives buried at Green Hill, consider volunteering for this worthwhile civic enterprise.

       Other famous Amsterdamians buried at Green Hill include carpet maker Stephen Sanford and John Kellogg, one of the founders of a linseed oil plant that existed on nearby Church Street.  Kellogg and other family members are buried in an impressive circle of stones at Green Hill.

       Cemetery association board member Peter Betz said many of the families whose businesses helped create Amsterdam’s industrial prosperity are memorialized at Green Hill with names such as Morris, Sugden, Voorhees, Wallins and McLeary.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, September 20, 2023

51 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:04AM 

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Benedict Arnold buried in Amsterdam

By Bob Cudmore

       This may be April 1 but trust me when I say that Benedict Arnold is buried in Amsterdam’s Green Hill Cemetery.

       Amsterdam’s Benedict Arnold was not related to the Revolutionary War traitor of the same name, a fact noted by the Library of Congress when the Mohawk Valley man died in 1849.

       However, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia contends that Arnold, born October 5 1780, was named in honor of the infamous traitor.  Wikipedia speculates that the original Benedict Arnold was still regarded as a hero until his plans to betray the fort at West Point were found out on September 23, 1780. 

Wikipedia states, “Either the news took longer than this to make its way upstate, or his parents were of Loyalist sympathy; the latter seems unlikely, however, as they seem to have remained in the area despite widespread emigration of loyalists to Canada.”

       Some accounts say the local Benedict Arnold was born in Rennselaer County while others list his birthplace as Florida or what is now Amsterdam.   By 1808, he was operating a store in Amsterdam, first at the corner of Market and Bridge streets and then moving across the intersection to Market and Main.

       Arnold was one of the founders of the Amsterdam Aqueduct Company in 1829.  The company laid pipes west of the Chuctanunda Creek to bring water to thirsty citizens.

       Arnold served as a member of the New York State Assembly in 1816.  He was a member of Congress from 1829 to 1831 during the administration of President Andrew Jackson, although he was politically opposed to Jackson.

       When he returned from Washington, Arnold was among those who led the campaign to incorporate Amsterdam as a village.  He was the second president of the village board in 1832.  He was town of Amsterdam supervisor from 1835 to 1836 and, in 1844, was one of the organizers of the Fonda Fair.

       His Market Street home was a landmark torn down for construction of the Blood Building, now the site of the Best Western Hotel.

       Arnold was described in local accounts as a major general.  He apparently was a general in the New York State militia, the 19th century version of a standing army. 

       Also buried at Green Hill Cemetery is Arnold’s grandson, Lieutenant Benedict Arnold Leonard, who was killed in 1864 in the battle of Spotsylvania Court House, the lieutenant’s twelfth Civil War Battle.

       Arnold Avenue and the former Arnold Avenue School, built in 1891, were named in honor of the good Benedict Arnold and his family.

       Green Hill Cemetery was created in 1858, nine years after Arnold’s death.  Presumably, his body was moved there from another location.

       Arnold’s grave is just one of the important historic markers in the cemetery, which has come upon hard times in recent years.  Officials of the cemetery association fear if their current fund raising campaign is not successful, the organization may cease to exist.  Donations can be sent to: Green Hill Cemetery Association, 164 West Main Street, Amsterdam, N.Y. 12010.

       The Association is looking for new board members.  If you are among the thousands with relatives buried at Green Hill, consider volunteering for this worthwhile civic enterprise.

       Other famous Amsterdamians buried at Green Hill include carpet maker Stephen Sanford and John Kellogg, one of the founders of a linseed oil plant that existed on nearby Church Street.  Kellogg and other family members are buried in an impressive circle of stones at Green Hill.

       Cemetery association board member Peter Betz said many of the families whose businesses helped create Amsterdam’s industrial prosperity are memorialized at Green Hill with names such as Morris, Sugden, Voorhees, Wallins and McLeary.

Wednesday, September 20, 2023-From the Archives- May 5, 2023-Episode 473-Bob Cudmore provides a Focus on History podcast with topics including an eccentric philosopher, the Demskys of Eagle Street, Amsterdam’s agile mayor Burt Deal and how boxing flourished in 1930s Amsterdam.  Dave Greene remembers boxing great Jake LaMotta.

Thursday, September 21, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam Post Office murals

Friday, September 22, 2023-Episode 493-Scott Shane, author of Flee North- A forgotten hero and the fight for freedom in slavery’s borderland.  The book traces the life of Thomas Smallwood, an African American who named the Underground Railroad.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, September 19, 2023

59 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:55AM 

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Thanks to the donors for The Historians Podcast fund drive.  But we still have a long way to go.  Please donate online here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Duanesburg History Center celebrates five years — Around the County
Longtime Duanesburg resident Art Willis told me back in 2009 that if the town could ever manage to create its…Daily Gazette https://dailygazette.com/

..by Tyler A. McNeil

Monday, September 18, 2023-Story behind the story-The Pisciotta connection. Bob tells the story in 7 minutes. By the way, all Historians podcasts are 29 minutes.

Tuesday, September 19, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Benedict Arnold buried in Amsterdam

This may be April 1 but trust me when I say that Benedict Arnold is buried in Amsterdam’s Green Hill Cemetery.

       Amsterdam’s Benedict Arnold was not related to the Revolutionary War traitor of the same name..

Wednesday, September 20, 2023-From the Archives- May 5, 2023-Episode 473-Bob Cudmore provides a Focus on History podcast with topics including an eccentric philosopher, the Demskys of Eagle Street, Amsterdam’s agile mayor Burt Deal and how boxing flourished in 1930s Amsterdam.  Dave Greene remembers boxing great Jake LaMotta.

Thursday, September 21, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam Post Office murals

Friday, September 22, 2023-Episode 493-Scott Shane, author of Flee North- A forgotten hero and the fight for freedom in slavery’s borderland.  The book traces the life of Thomas Smallwood, an African American who named the Underground Railroad.

The Pisciotta connection

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History 

   Last month the City of Amsterdam recognized Pisciotta as a Twin City.

   Many Italian-Americans who settled in Amsterdam’s West End came from Pisciotta, a small, southern Italian hilltop community in the Campania region of Salerno province.

   One of the Pisciottani who settled in Amsterdam was Aniello Robusto, who migrated when he was sixteen in 1904.  He became an American citizen in 1913 and married Michelina Pucci, also from Pisciotta, two years later.

   Aniello opened a barber shop and paint, print and glass shops on West Main Street.  He and his wife learned how to set type for the printing business.  Michelina worked sewing dress gloves in her home for a local glove manufacturer.

   Aniello taught himself English words with the help of the Sears catalog, looking at pictures and putting the names together.  He found that education was free and he took night classes in English.

   He was able to buy a two story house behind his shops.  They raised their family in the house and expanded the building, renting two flats and five garages.

   The family of eight lived in that house until building a new house on Stewart Street in 1941,

   St. Agnello of Naples, also known as Aniello the Abbot, is venerated as a saint by the Pisciottanni in Italy.  His feast day, December 14, also was celebrated in Amsterdam and there was a St. Agnello’s Club in the Mohawk Valley city.

   The Robustos and many other Italian-American residents in the city’s West End tended vegetable gardens on the fertile flat land between the railroad tracks and Mohawk River/Erie Canal.

   They built poles for pole beans and lattices to keep tomatoes off the ground. They grew lettuce, zucchini and dandelions, much as their ancestors had done in Italy.  They bought boxes of grapes and made their own wine.

   Aniello Robusto’s name is inscribed on an altar at a church in Pisciotta because he raised money at Amsterdam church festivals for the Italian church.

   A great believer in education, Aniello was proud his oldest daughter, Rosalyn Robusto Murphy, became a school teacher.  The family’s four sons all served in World War II: Ralph, Jerry, Alfred and Richard.  They are now deceased.

   Rita Robusto Mucilli, the youngest daughter, who worked at St. Mary’s Hospital, provided information for this article.  Rita’s late husband was Frank J. Mucilli.  They had five children.

   In his later years Frank Mucilli provided weather data to local media, including my Amsterdam morning radio show.

   There are many Amsterdam residents descended from Pisciottani.  One I should mention is my high school classmate and high school reunion organizer Vicki Petrosino Sollecito, whose father was from Pisciotta.

       Others include Mayor Michael Cinquanti, the Isabels, Capuccios, Sansalones, Catenas, Tambascos and Pepes.

   The Pisciotta connection even led to theatrical hijinks in 1967 during the Amsterdam recreation department production of “My Fair Lady.”

   According to Jahnn Swanker-Gibson, who was there, actor Eddie Schwartz, as Zoltan Karpathy, was supposed to say to Phil Bracchi, playing Henry Higgins, “I have made your name famous in all the great capitals of Europe: London, Paris, Rome.”

   Swanker-Gibson said, “Instead Schwartz changed one word and said, “I have made your name famous in all the great capitals of Europe: London, Paris, Pisciotta.”

   The audience roared.  The director, the late Bert DeRose, was in stitches backstage.

   When asked if he recalled the incident, DeRose later said, “Yes I do and I gave them both you know what. I always stayed with the script, in respect to the playwrights.”

   DeRose was well aware of Amsterdam’s connection with Pisciotta, although his own family came from the province of Benevento.

Mohawk Valley Weather for a new week, Monday, September 18, 2023

60 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:09AM 

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The Pisciotta connection

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History 

   Last month the City of Amsterdam recognized Pisciotta as a Twin City.

   Many Italian-Americans who settled in Amsterdam’s West End came from Pisciotta, a small, southern Italian hilltop community in the Campania region of Salerno province.

   One of the Pisciottani who settled in Amsterdam was Aniello Robusto, who migrated when he was sixteen in 1904.  He became an American citizen in 1913 and married Michelina Pucci, also from Pisciotta, two years later.

   Aniello opened a barber shop and paint, print and glass shops on West Main Street.  He and his wife learned how to set type for the printing business.  Michelina worked sewing dress gloves in her home for a local glove manufacturer.

   Aniello taught himself English words with the help of the Sears catalog, looking at pictures and putting the names together.  He found that education was free and he took night classes in English.

   He was able to buy a two story house behind his shops.  They raised their family in the house and expanded the building, renting two flats and five garages.

   The family of eight lived in that house until building a new house on Stewart Street in 1941,

   St. Agnello of Naples, also known as Aniello the Abbot, is venerated as a saint by the Pisciottanni in Italy.  His feast day, December 14, also was celebrated in Amsterdam and there was a St. Agnello’s Club in the Mohawk Valley city.

Thanks to the donors for The Historians Podcast fund drive.  But we still have a long way to go.  Please donate online here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. 

   The Robustos and many other Italian-American residents in the city’s West End tended vegetable gardens on the fertile flat land between the railroad tracks and Mohawk River/Erie Canal.

   They built poles for pole beans and lattices to keep tomatoes off the ground. They grew lettuce, zucchini and dandelions, much as their ancestors had done in Italy.  They bought boxes of grapes and made their own wine.

   Aniello Robusto’s name is inscribed on an altar at a church in Pisciotta because he raised money at Amsterdam church festivals for the Italian church.

   A great believer in education, Aniello was proud his oldest daughter, Rosalyn Robusto Murphy, became a school teacher.  The family’s four sons all served in World War II: Ralph, Jerry, Alfred and Richard.  They are now deceased.

   Rita Robusto Mucilli, the youngest daughter, who worked at St. Mary’s Hospital, provided information for this article.  Rita’s late husband was Frank J. Mucilli.  They had five children.

   In his later years Frank Mucilli provided weather data to local media, including my Amsterdam morning radio show.

   There are many Amsterdam residents descended from Pisciottani.  One I should mention is my high school classmate and high school reunion organizer Vicki Petrosino Sollecito, whose father was from Pisciotta.

       Others include Mayor Michael Cinquanti, the Isabels, Capuccios, Sansalones, Catenas, Tambascos and Pepes.

   The Pisciotta connection even led to theatrical hijinks in 1967 during the Amsterdam recreation department production of “My Fair Lady.”

   According to Jahnn Swanker-Gibson, who was there, actor Eddie Schwartz, as Zoltan Karpathy, was supposed to say to Phil Bracchi, playing Henry Higgins, “I have made your name famous in all the great capitals of Europe: London, Paris, Rome.”

   Swanker-Gibson said, “Instead Schwartz changed one word and said, “I have made your name famous in all the great capitals of Europe: London, Paris, Pisciotta.”

   The audience roared.  The director, the late Bert DeRose, was in stitches backstage.

   When asked if he recalled the incident, DeRose later said, “Yes I do and I gave them both you know what. I always stayed with the script, in respect to the playwrights.”

   DeRose was well aware of Amsterdam’s connection with Pisciotta, although his own family came from the province of Benevento.

Monday, September 18, 2023-Story behind the story-The Pisciotta connection. Bob tells the story in 7 minutes. By the way, all Historians podcasts are 29 minutes.

Tuesday, September 19, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Benedict Arnold buried in Amsterdam

Wednesday, September 20, 2023-From the Archives- May 5, 2023-Episode 473-Bob Cudmore provides a Focus on History podcast with topics including an eccentric philosopher, the Demskys of Eagle Street, Amsterdam’s agile mayor Burt Deal and how boxing flourished in 1930s Amsterdam.  Dave Greene remembers boxing great Jake LaMotta.

Thursday, September 21, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam Post Office murals

Friday, September 22, 2023-Episode 493-Scott Shane, author of Flee North- A forgotten hero and the fight for freedom in slavery’s borderland.  The book traces the life of Thomas Smallwood, an African American who named the Underground Railroad.

Episode 493-Charles Yaple, Professor Emeritus at SUNY Cortland, has written Jacob’s Land, a history of an immigrant family and of the native tribes who populated the land in New York State in the 1700s. Yaple has also written The Tree of Us following the lives of three men, from Richford, New York, including John D. Rockefeller, once the world’s richest man, and Gurdon Wallace Wattle, a friend to five U.S. presidents.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, September 17, 2023

51 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:55AM 

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Today in The Daily Gazette and/or The Amsterdam Recorder and here on The Historians Sunday

Focus on History-The Pisciotta connection-Last month the City of Amsterdam recognized Pisciotta as a Twin City.  Many Italian-Americans who settled in Amsterdam’s West End came from Pisciotta, a small, southern Italian hilltop community in the Campania region of Salerno province.

Historians Go Fund Me Up $50.00 from Friday(Thank You)

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 Thanks to all the donors so far. In the U.S. Mail a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. Bob will check the mailbox  first thing Monday morning.

Click the link-online here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast 

Episode 493-Charles Yaple, Professor Emeritus at SUNY Cortland, has written Jacob’s Land, a history of an immigrant family and of the native tribes who populated the land in New York State in the 1700s. Yaple has also written The Tree of Us following the lives of three men, from Richford, New York, including John D. Rockefeller, once the world’s richest man, and Gurdon Wallace Wattle, a friend to five U.S. presidents.

Saturday, September 16, 2023

Episode 400-Robert Gross, author of The Transcendentalists and Their World-Emerson, Thoreau and Concord, Massachusetts in the 1800s.

Sunday, September 17, 2023 Focus on History-The Pisciotta connection

****

According to a 1930 column by Harry T. Brundidge in the St. Louis Star about “this fellow Sheridan in Rome, N.Y.,” the first telegram came September 9 when the Cardinals were in fourth place, “Do not worry, you will lose today, regardless of your pitching choice; you will win the next three.”

This is a Bob Cudmore story of A baseball oracle

A man who spent the last four months of his life in Amsterdam was living in Rome, New York, when he correctly predicted the outcome of 21 St. Louis Cardinals baseball games at the end of the 1930 season.

According to his son, James J. Sheridan III of Amsterdam, James J. Sheridan II was operating a candy store called the Smoke Shop in Rome when he began sending uncannily accurate telegrams to the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, Charles “Gabby” Street.  The messages predicted the outcome of pending games and often gave Street instruction on who should pitch.

According to a 1930 column by Harry T. Brundidge in the St. Louis Star about “this fellow Sheridan in Rome, N.Y.,” the first telegram came September 9 when the Cardinals were in fourth place, “Do not worry, you will lose today, regardless of your pitching choice; you will win the next three.”

That day the Cardinals lost to the New York Giants before winning the next three games. The following day another message promised, “Everything O.K. You will win two and lose one.” 

Street read the prediction to the team.  "Say," he exclaimed, "it's from the same nut who sent me the telegram in New York."  But the Cardinals performed as the “nut” predicted.

The telegrams continued and on the final weekend of the season, St. Louis hosted Pittsburgh for a four-game series.  Street received a telegram stating, “Have no worries. Pitch (Burleigh) Grimes and (Jesse) Haines in first two games and Cards are in the bag. The pennant will be clinched Friday so you can have some rest.”

Grimes pitched a shutout. Haines helped clinch the pennant the next night as St. Louis won again.

The Cards moved into the World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics. A telegram from Sheridan said Sylvester Johnson should pitch.  He warned Street that St. Louis would lose two in a row if Grimes pitched that day.  Street ignored his oracle, put Grimes on the mound and St. Louis lost two games. 

The next telegram from Sheridan in Rome said, “Don't worry. I'm praying. (Bill) Hallahan and Haines will win Saturday and Sunday. I'll wire you about Monday's game.” Hallahan and Haines won their two games.

The Monday telegram failed to arrive.  Team members were reported unsettled by their loss of direction from Sheridan and lost Monday’s game.

A final telegram arrived before game six, “Hallahan and Haines will win the championship for St. Louis tomorrow and Thursday.”  For the first time, Sheridan was wrong.  Philadelphia defeated St. Louis by a score of 7 to 1 and won the World Series.

Sheridan left Rome in 1931 and lived in other valley municipalities such as Herkimer.  In late 1934, the family moved to Stewart Street in Amsterdam.  He was working as a cigar salesman.  Overwhelmed when he lost that job, Sheridan sent a goodbye note to a friend, a reporter at the Rome Sentinel.  The reporter contacted the Recorder newsroom in Amsterdam and their reporters went to Sheridan’s house; the 42-year old already had hung himself.

The Sentinel wrote in an editor’s note following Sheridan’s death, “This fellow Sheridan of Rome, N.Y.” was one of the best-liked men ever to live in this city. Although beset by financial difficulties, he seldom lost his smile for his friends, his spirit of good fellowship. Many Romans knew and liked Jimmie Sheridan.”

James Sheridan III, now 86, said his mother Ursula and two sisters briefly went on welfare but his mother soon found work in finance.  Ursula Sheridan became well known for operating a finance company on Chuctanunda Street in Amsterdam.

Friday, September 15, 2023- Episode 493-Charles Yaple, Professor Emeritus at SUNY Cortland, has written Jacob’s Land, a history of an immigrant family and of the native tribes who populated the land in New York State in the 1700s. Yaple has also written The Tree of Us following the lives of three men, from Richford, New York, including John D. Rockefeller, once the world’s richest man, and Gurdon Wallace Wattle, a friend to five U.S. presidents.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, September 16, 2023

57 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:11AM 

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