The Historians

‘Fragrance’ led patrons to lunch wagons

By Bob Cudmore

Historian Hugh Donlon has reported that two lunch wagons were popular in downtown Amsterdam from about 1900 to the 1920s.  The wagons were operated by the McNally family who stored them during the day at sheds near what is now the post office on Church Street.  Each night, teams of horses pulled one wagon to the corner of Church and Main and the other to Market and Main.  The Church Street chef was Matty Curran and the Market Street cook was Allie Goffin. 

“Wafted on the summer zephyr or swirled fiercely by the winter’s gale, the onionized fragrance of a McNally western egg sandwich could be sensed blocks way,” Donlon wrote.  A western egg sandwich cost a dime, according to Donlon, while a piece of pie was a nickel.

MORE CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

        Amsterdam native Donald Isburgh, who now lives in Rexford, responded to a recent column on holiday memories by recalling 11 p.m. Christmas Eve services at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church on Division Street.

“This was in the years before other local churches had their own Christmas Eve services, and the church was so crowded that the ushers had to set up extra chairs in the center aisle to accommodate everyone,” Isburgh said.

Hagaman native Elizabeth Russo recalled singing with either a Girl Scout or high school chorus at Amsterdam’s Coessens Park when that East End facility was used for Christmas functions.

Russo said, “I remember it was very cold and windy and ‘raw’ as my mom would have said. There were not many spectators watching!

RIVER ISLAND

Tony Pacelli, in his book “Past and Present,” recalled an island in the Mohawk River near Elk Street in Amsterdam: “A few local people had their rowboats anchored there. Every evening, they rowed to their gardens and worked until dusk. This island had many fruit trees and a shelter shack on it. Every Sunday, you could hear the strains of music up and down the river.”

Friday, July 14, 2023-Episode 483-WAMC radio film commentator, historian and archivist Audrey Kupferberg discusses pre-Hollywood filmmaking in New York State and other topics.

Saturday, July 15,-From the archives- Episode 201, February 9, 2018, Peter Betz, history columnist for the Leader Herald newspaper, has stories on the local impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic, some notorious Fulton County jail escapes, and the Airship Gelatin, funded by Johnstown’s Knox family.

Sunday, July 16, 2023 

Focus on History-19th century bottlers drank more than soda plus Lurie’s Dept. Store

Mohawk Valley  Weather, Thursday, July 13, 2023

70 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:23AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Please make a donation today toward our $7000 goal for 2023.  Help us provide history podcasts on war correspondent Dickey Chapelle, the Battle of 1777 at Saratoga and an upcoming interview with Audrey Kepferberg "it's all about the old movies".  Donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast  or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. You may give anonymously and donations large and small are appreciated.

Wednesday, July 12, 2023-From the Archives-Episode 50, March 8, 2015-David Brooks has excerpts from an 1869 journal written by a Fort Hunter man. David is education coordinator at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site in Fort Hunter.

Thursday, July 13, 2023

Amsterdam lunch wagons 

Historian Hugh Donlon has reported that two lunch wagons were popular in downtown Amsterdam from about 1900 to the 1920s.  The wagons were operated by the McNally family who stored them during the day at sheds near what is now the post office on Church Street.  Each night, teams of horses pulled one wagon to the corner of Church and Main and the other to Market and Main.  The Church Street chef was Matty Curran and the Market Street cook was Allie Goffin.

Audrey Kupferberg

Friday, July 14, 2023-Episode 483-WAMC radio film commentator, historian and archivist Audrey Kupferberg discusses pre-Hollywood filmmaking in New York State and other topics.

Mohawk Valley  Weather, Wednesday, July 12, 2023

69 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:12AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Bottling plant generated memories

Fitzgerald’s an institution in Amsterdam

By Bob Cudmore 

For Amsterdam native and former bottling plant employee Richard Sidlauscus, the 1960s bring back memories of Mountain Dew.

Sidlauscus, who now lives in Wallingford, Connecticut, said that when Fitzgerald’s Bottling Works started carrying Mountain Dew, they couldn’t keep up with the summertime demand.

“The limiting factor was the number of glass bottles,” Sidlauscus said.  “For some reason, it was not possible to get bottles from the glass manufacturer without a long lead time.  This meant that in order to produce the soda, we had to rely on returns.”

Sidlauscus started working at Fitzgerald’s in 1962, at first helping a route driver who had been hurt. 

“After that, I sorted bottles until I went away to college in September,” Sidlauscus said.  “You probably wouldn't believe what man can do to an empty bottle.  I worked there at various jobs for a few summers.”

Founded in 1882, Fitzgerald’s Bottling Works was located at 465 East Main Street Extension in the town of Amsterdam.  A previous column recalled Harold Watermann, a soda machine expert employed at Fitzgerald’s until shortly before his death in 1971.  Back in 1925, Fitzgerald’s had been one of the exhibitors in the Amsterdam Progress Exhibition set up in the East End to tout the city’s businesses.

Company president Gerald Fitzgerald lived with his wife across the street from the plant, was known as “Fitz” and died in 1970, according to Sidlauscus.

Long affiliated with Pepsi Cola, Fitzgerald’s relocated to Freeman’s Bridge Road in Glenville in the late 1960s.  Apparently, the firm closed some years after that.

Sidlauscus’ cousin Benedict Karutis was an executive with the bottling works and took over the operation when Fitzgerald died.  Karutis has retired to Florida.

“My father (Frank) worked for Fitzgerald’s as well,” Sidlauscus said.  “He started in either late 1957 or early 1958.  He had worked at Mohawk Mills both before and after the war, but the job moved down south and he didn't want to relocate.  So he got a job with Fitzgerald’s as a manager/supervisor of the bottling plant and delivery trucks.”

The best-known Fitzgerald product was ginger ale.  In addition to regular ginger ale, Sidlauscus said the company bottled golden ginger ale, with a bit more tang.

]] The ginger ales came in green 32 ounce bottles, and had yellow paper labels.  Fitzgerald’s made a lemon-lime soda called Lithiated Lemon.  The firm distributed Teem, a lemon-lime soda, under franchise.  Fitzgerald’s sold Saratoga Vichy, but got it already bottled from Saratoga.  The Amsterdam bottler also had an exclusive for Schweppes products. 

Fitzgerald’s bottled its own grape and orange soda plus two other flavors—lemon and cream. 

“The lemon soda was yellow and had a sweet lemony flavor,” Sidlauscus said.  “I have never seen it anywhere else.  Lemon-lime, yes, but just lemon, no.  The other was cream soda.  Now a lot of other bottlers made a cream soda.  However, there was one feature about Fitzgerald’s cream soda that set it apart: it was red in color.  The flavor was cream like all the others, but all the others were a pale brown color.”

YET ANOTHER BOTTLER

        Amsterdam had another small bottling plant that lasted into the 1960s, according to Sidlauscus.

“It was an extremely small operation, located on Forbes Street near where Lark Street intersects with it,” Sidlauscus said.  “The bottling plant was located in a garage attached to a house.”   

According to city directories, the 124 Forbes Street bottler was the William D. Redding Bottling Works.  It existed in the 1930s and was headed by Redding and, apparently after his death, by his widow, Mary Redding.  Fitzgerald’s and Redding did home soda deliveries as late as the 1960s. 

Wednesday, July 12, 2023-From the Archives-Episode 50, March 8, 2015-David Brooks has excerpts from an 1869 journal written by a Fort Hunter man. David is education coordinator at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site in Fort Hunter.

Thursday, July 13, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam lunch wagons 

Friday, July 14, 2023-Episode 483-WAMC radio film commentator, historian and archivist Audrey Kupferberg discusses pre-Hollywood filmmaking in New York State and other topics.

Please make a donation today toward our $7000 goal for 2023.  Help us provide history podcasts on war correspondent Dickey Chapelle, the Battle of 1777 at Saratoga and an upcoming interview with Audrey Kepferberg "it's all about the old movies".  Donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast  or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. You may give anonymously and donations large and small are appreciated.

Mohawk Valley  Weather, Tuesday, July 11, 2023

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

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

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Monday, July 10, 2023-Story behind the story-Weston the pedestrian.

Tuesday, July 11, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Fitzgerald’s soda bottling plant

Wednesday, July 12, 2023-From the Archives-Episode 50, March 8, 2015-David Brooks has excerpts from an 1869 journal written by a Fort Hunter man. David is education coordinator at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site in Fort Hunter.

Thursday, July 13, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam lunch wagons 

Friday, July 14, 2023-Episode 483-WAMC radio film commentator, historian and archivist Audrey Kupferberg discusses pre-Hollywood filmmaking in New York State and other topics.

Weston the pedestrian

By Bob Cudmore

   When Edward Payson Weston strode into Amsterdam in 1910, the New York Times reported that Weston received “the merriest reception which has been accorded him at any place during his walk across the continent.”

   Weston, born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1839, started America’s fascination with long distance walking in 1861 when he trekked from Boston to Washington to fulfill a bet that he would accomplish the feat in ten days if Abraham Lincoln won the Presidential election. 

   Weston’s walk took ten hours longer than ten days but he became famous for the valiant effort, giving people a diversion in a very dark time. 

   After the Civil War ended, Weston walked from Portland, Maine to Chicago, Illinois, in 1867 to win a prize of $10,000.  Gamblers took to betting on competitive walkers.

   Weston the pedestrian, as he famously called himself, was in Amsterdam in October 1894 as part of a walk around New York State.

   He passed through Amsterdam again on his walk from Portland, Maine, to Chicago in 1907 at age 68.  When he started out, Weston was doing 50 miles a day.  

   Weston went through Amsterdam on March 19, 1909 on his 4,000 mile walk from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, a journey that took 104 days. 

   On his way back he went through Amsterdam on the night of April 26, 1910, receiving the tumultuous welcome that was reported by the New York Times. 

   The Amsterdam Recorder had sent a reporter west to Tribes Hill to walk with Weston on the approach to Amsterdam,  Hundreds were cheering the pedestrian along the road through Tribes Hill and the village of Akin, later renamed Fort Johnson, 

   Weston frequently doffed his hat to acknowledge women well-wishers and spectators waving American flags. 

   The Recorder wrote, “The younger ones cared not where they dodged and occasionally one of them would get directly in the pathway of the walker or else bump against him in the rear.”

   When the crowds got too close Weston would shout, “Please keep 10 feet away/”

   The Amsterdam police chief escorted Weston from the city line on Guy Park Avenue, where the first fireworks were heard.  Weston and his entourage turned down Caroline Street then headed east on Division Street.

   When Weston turned right on Market Street, a flying wedge of high school boys made it possible for him to continue moving forward through the huge crowd,   

   “It was then that enthusiasm let loose,” the Recorder wrote, “And the sirens of the automobiles

coupled with the red firesticks and Roman candles made a din that Market Street has never before seen.”

   Fireworks ignited the awning on John Larrabee’s hardware store but the blaze was quickly extinguished “with the aid of water thrown from the upper windows.”

   Weston went inside the Barnes Hotel on Market Street and was “whisked to his room” where he met with Stephen Sanford, Amsterdam’s most prominent carpet mill owner/

   After Sanford left, Weston rested.  He came down about two a.m. saying he was “feeling bully.”  He had breakfast and then resumed his marathon trek, heading for Schenectady, Troy and ultimately New York City.  There he expected to give up walking for a while “and go on the lecture platform” with his topic being "The Vicissitudes of a Pedestrian."

   The last reference to Weston being in Amsterdam came in 1922 when the then 82-year old walker came through town September 23 on his way to New York City. 

   Weston was hit by a New York City taxicab in 1927.  Badly injured, he stopped walking.  He died in 1929 and was buried in New York City.

Please make a donation today toward our $7000 goal for 2023.  Help us provide history podcasts on war correspondent Dickey Chapelle, the Battle of 1777 at Saratoga and an upcoming interview with Audrey Kepferberg "it's all about the old movies".  Donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast  or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. You may give anonymously and donations large and small are appreciated.

Mohawk Valley  Weather, Monday, July 10, 2023

68 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:48AMAM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Bob Cudmore Radio Schedule today, Saturday, July 8, 2023

WCSS 106.9FM and 1490AM Amsterdam at Noon

Saturday, July 8, 2023-Episode 482-American Revolution Stories. Eric Schnitzer and Nina Sankovich, spoke at last month’s Revolutionary War conference sponsored by Fort Plain Museum. Schnitzer has written the text to artist Don Troiani’s Campaign to Saratoga 1777. Sankovich discusses how the Hancock, Adams, and Quincy families of Braintree, Massachusetts fanned the flames of America’s revolution.

Saturday, July 8, 2023-Episode 319-Hear about the Miracle on Ice and more from sports journalist and skater Christie Sausa, author of the book “Lake Placid: Figure Skating, A History.”

Posted by Lee Richey

Cable TV promo made while I was working there,...about 1989

Please make a donation today toward our $7000 goal for 2023.  Help us provide history podcasts on war correspondent Dickey Chapelle, the Battle of 1777 at Saratoga and an upcoming interview with Audrey Kepferberg "it's all about the old movies".  Donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast  or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. You may give anonymously and donations large and small are appreciated.

Saturday, July 8, 2023-A landlocked “lighthouse” that helped motorists on a busy Mohawk Valley highway.

Sunday, July 9, 2023 (Printed in The Gazette and Recorder each Saturday)

Weston the Pedestrian

When Edward Payson Weston strode into Amsterdam in 1910, the New York Times reported that Weston received “the merriest reception which has been accorded him at any place during his walk across the continent.”

Episode 482-American Revolution Stories.  Eric Schnitzer and Nina Sankovitch, spoke at last month’s Revolutionary War conference sponsored by Fort Plain Museum.  Schnitzer has written the text to artist Don Troiani’s Campaign to Saratoga 1777.  Sankovich discusses how the Hancock, Adams, and Quincy families of Braintree, Massachusetts fanned the flames of America’s revolution.

Mohawk Valley  Weekend Weather, Saturday, July 8, 2023

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

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

YouTube Post "Down the Page"

A few scenes by The Daily Gazette reporter/photographer Stan Hudy of the 2023 July 4 parade in Alplaus, NY. The small hamlet has hosted this small-town parade for more than 40 years.

Read Bob Cudmore in The Gazette 

This weekend "Weston the Pedestrian"

Please make a donation today toward our $7000 goal for 2023.  Help us provide history podcasts on war correspondent Dickey Chapelle, the Battle of 1777 at Saratoga and an upcoming interview with Audrey Kepferberg "it's all about the old movies".  Donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast  or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. You may give anonymously and donations large and small are appreciated.

Memories for the Class of 1949

By Bob Cudmore

The reunion season has been in high gear and Amsterdam High School class of 1949 observed their 60th this month at Rolling Hills Golf Course in Fort Johnson.

In 1949, that golf course was called the Antlers.  It was founded in 1901 by industrialists and professionals who quietly purchased the 90 acres for the course in separate transactions to keep landowners from raising their prices. 

The original Antlers clubhouse had a large veranda with a spectacular view of the Mohawk Valley.  In 1965 the old clubhouse burned down and was replaced by the current building.  In recent years the name was changed to Rolling Hills.

Class of 1949 football center Daniel Donohue of Granville and Port Saint Lucie, Florida recalled that Amsterdam or Wilbur H. Lynch High School entered Class A football in 1949.  The team won the title that year, an early example of a competitive sports tradition that continues to this day.

In 1949 the New York Yankees came to Amsterdam, according to sources I have seen, although Donohue recalled the Yankee visit was the year before.  With Phil Rizzuto and Yogi Berra on the team, the Yankees defeated their farm team the Rugmakers 9 to 2 before over four thousand fans at Mohawk Mills Park.  This year, the Amsterdam Mohawks attracted a crowd of over 5,000 with their special events Fourth of July at the ball field, today named Herbert Shuttleworth Park in honor of a former president of Mohawk Carpet.

In 1949 an Amsterdam downtown movie theater, the Tryon, opened on Main Street.  The first feature film was Champion, city native Kirk Douglas’s breakout movie about a conflicted boxer.

Also in 1949, 14-year old Arlene Fontana was appearing in variety shows directed by class of 1949 member Bert DeRose in Amsterdam. Fontana began performing on WRGB television that year in the new local talent program Teen Age Barn.  Fontana went on to a career as a singer and dancer on Broadway, television and nightclubs.  She was best known for her work as Linda Low with her signature song “I Enjoy Being a Girl” in the national company of Flower Drum Song.  She died in 1990.

DeRose and the late Bill Levine produced several Amsterdam variety shows while in high school.  DeRose and Levine convinced the football team to dress as cheerleaders for a musical number that brought down the house.  But today Donohue recalled that he and fellow football standout James Martin only mouthed the words during the performance.  DeRose said if he had known that, he would have got out the hook.  DeRose went on to a career as a local drama teacher and ultimately became principal of Amsterdam High.  He came up with the idea of making the ram the symbol of the school when it moved from its old location on Brandt Place to Miami Avenue in the town of Amsterdam.

One member of the class of 1949 is my cousin Betty Segen Pronk who grew up in the town of Amsterdam.  When Betty was in high school, she was a waitress for Margaret Bennett at the Tower restaurant on Route 5 in Cranesville.  Today the restaurant is Valentino’s.

Mrs. Bennett, as she was known, was prominent in Republican politics and a friend of Governor Thomas Dewey, almost elected President in 1948.  When that election approached, Mrs. Bennett wondered if my cousin Betty’s parents—Peter and Jane Segen--would vote for Dewey.  Betty said her mom would but her father couldn’t, as he wasn’t a citizen, lacking papers from when he came from Ukraine.  Mrs. Bennett somehow fixed it so Peter Segen became a citizen and could vote for Dewey. 

Friday, July 7, 2023-Episode 482-American Revolution Stories.  Eric Schnitzer and Nina Sankovich, spoke at last month’s Revolutionary War conference sponsored by Fort Plain Museum.  Schnitzer has written the text to artist Don Troiani’s Campaign to Saratoga 1777.  Sankovich discusses how the Hancock, Adams, and Quincy families of Braintree, Massachusetts fanned the flames of America’s revolution.

Saturday, July 8, 2023-A landlocked “lighthouse” that helped motorists on a busy Mohawk Valley highway.

Sunday, July 9, 2023 

Weston the Pedestrian

The Daily Gazette

A few scenes by The Daily Gazette reporter/photographer Stan Hudy of the 2023 July 4 parade in Alplaus, NY. The small hamlet has hosted this small-town parade for more than 40 years.

Mohawk Valley  Weather, Thursday, July 6, 2023

70 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:50AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Wednesday, July 5, 2023-Episode 289-Kimberly Collins focuses on women’s involvement in the 1912 Appalachian Coal Mine Wars in her native West Virginia in her historical novel “Blood Creek.”  

“She always wanted more than she had. Would it ever be enough?”

In 1912 West Virginia, starving coal miners are arming themselves and threatening to strike. Wealthy coal operators have hired the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to protect their fortunes and crush the rebellious miners by whatever means necessary—no matter how violent. Long-smoldering resentments are about to erupt into one of the largest armed insurrections in US history: The West Virginia Coal Mine Wars.

The latest contribution to the Historians Podcast fund drive came from Frank Yunker who maintains an online archive of our Focus on History columns. 

Please make a donation today toward our $7000 goal for 2023.  Help us provide history podcasts on war correspondent Dickey Chapelle, the Battle of 1777 at Saratoga and an upcoming interview with Audrey Kepferberg "it's all about the old movies".  Donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast  or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. You may give anonymously and donations large and small are appreciated.

Tomorrow from The Daily Gazette

Memories of the class of 1949 

The reunion season has been in high gear and Amsterdam High School class of 1949 observed their 60th this month at Rolling Hills Golf Course in Fort Johnson. In 1949, that golf course was called the Antlers. 

Friday, July 7, 2023-Episode 482-American Revolution Stories.  Eric Schnitzer and Nina Sankovich, spoke at last month’s Revolutionary War conference sponsored by Fort Plain Museum.  Schnitzer has written the text to artist Don Troiani’s Campaign to Saratoga 1777.  Sankovich discusses how the Hancock, Adams, and Quincy families of Braintree, Massachusetts fanned the flames of America’s revolution.

Eric Schnitzer spoke at the Saratoga Springs History Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY on October 23, 2019 about the new book he has co-authored, "Don Troiani’s Campaign to Saratoga – 1777."

Posted by Saratoga History

Mohawk Valley  Weather, Wednesday, July 5, 2023

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

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Fourth of July through the years

By Bob Cudmore

   Horses owned by carpet maker Stephen Sanford of Amsterdam became fixtures at the nearby Saratoga racetrack in the late 1800s. 

   From 1903 through 1907, the Sanfords invited the people of Amsterdam to the Matinee Races at the family’s Hurricana Farm on the Sunday closest to Fourth of July.  Some 15,000 attended the event during its last year.

   “I read in the papers about General Sanford, the sporting man,” Sanford said in 1906. “I never presumed to be a sporting man, but I am proud of it. Call me a sporting man if you like.”

FCHS

YouTube Tour (Down the Page)

https://fultoncountyhistoricalsociety.org/

FOURTH OF JULY TRAGEDY

   A steep grade, human error and a wet night contributed to an appalling accident on the Mountain Lake Electric Railroad near Gloversville on July 4, 1902. 

   Fourteen people died and sixty were injured.  Most victims were Gloversville excursionists who had traveled up Bleecker Mountain to Mountain Lake for a day of fun capped by fireworks.  The lake had a resort hotel. 

   Two trolleys collided and both hurtled down the tracks on the steep hill.  Brakes were applied to no avail.  One car was put into reverse.  That blew circuit breakers plunging both cars into darkness.

   People jumped from one trolley car as it left the tracks.  Others were thrown beneath the car as it landed on its side.  As the rails separated the other trolley also left the tracks but remained upright.

   Thrown from one of the cars, 17-year old F. Willi  Berghoff stopped the next car by shouting and waving his hat.

   It took two hours before power was restored and help arrived.  Victims were taken to the old Nathan Littauer Hospital by trolley car.  

   The Mountain Lake Electric Railroad had opened in 1901.  After the accident, lawsuits bankrupted the company and it was reorganized as The Adirondack Lakes Traction Company.  The Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad then bought the company. 

   The hotel at the lake was destroyed by fire in 1908.  The trolley line closed in 1918. 

   According to historian Jerry Snyder, a railroad history group went up the route a few years ago.  Snyder said some members found brackets used to hold overhead wire supports after all these years.

   According to Amsterdam historian Jerry Snyder, a railroad history group went up the old trolley line route years ago.  Snyder said some members found brackets used to hold overhead wire supports after all these years.

CONEY ISLAND NORTH

   The Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad’s Sacandaga Park lasted much longer than Mountain Lake,

   The heyday of that amusement facility was 1902 to 1920. Nicknamed Coney Island North, the park featured a golf course, bowling alleys, midway, donkey and pony rides, roller coaster, Kinescope Theater, water rides, miniature train rides, boats, swimming and a classic carousel. 

   John Philip Sousa played Sacandaga Park as did Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor and W.C. Fields.  Baseball teams from Johnstown, Amsterdam and Gloversville drew big crowds to the park’s Sport sland.

   The amusement park was torn down in 1930, when the area was flooded to create the flood control reservoir today called Great Sacandaga Lake.

MUSIC AND TRAINS

   Summertime in the 1940s in Amsterdam meant concerts by Mohawk Mills Band, formed mainly from employees of the carpet mill and directed by Frank or his brother Harry Musolff. 

   The band played the overture to “Oklahoma” one year and had the tune down pat.  A long freight train rumbled by making it impossible for the musicians to hear each other.  When the train passed, the trumpets had finished but the trombones were still playing.

   The rumble of passing trains continues to affect concerts at today’s Riverlink Park in Amsterdam.

Tomorrow Bob Cudmores conversation with Kimberly Collins

Wednesday, July 5, 2023-Episode 289-Kimberly Collins focuses on women’s involvement in the 1912 Appalachian Coal Mine Wars in her native West Virginia in her historical novel “Blood Creek.”  

“She always wanted more than she had. Would it ever be enough?”

In 1912 West Virginia, starving coal miners are arming themselves and threatening to strike. Wealthy coal operators have hired the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to protect their fortunes and crush the rebellious miners by whatever means necessary—no matter how violent. Long-smoldering resentments are about to erupt into one of the largest armed insurrections in US history: The West Virginia Coal Mine Wars.

Thursday, July 6, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Memories of the class of 1949 

Friday, July 7, 2023-Episode 482-American Revolution Stories.  Eric Schnitzer and Nina Sankovich, spoke at last month’s Revolutionary War conference sponsored by Fort Plain Museum.  Schnitzer has written the text to artist Don Troiani’s Campaign to Saratoga 1777.  Sankovich discusses how the Hancock, Adams, and Quincy families of Braintree, Massachusetts fanned the flames of America’s revolution.

Mohawk Valley  Weather, Tuesday, July 4, 2023

71 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 7:01AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/