The Historians

Monday, July 3, 2023-Story behind the story- Amsterdam man among those rescued from a sunken submarine.

Please contribute to the 2023 Historians Podcast fund drive 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! 

Tuesday, July 4, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Fourth of July through the years. 

   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. 

Wednesday, July 5, 2023-From the Archives- Friday, October 25, 2019-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.”  

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.

Hands too chilled to grasp the ladder’s rungs

By Bob Cudmore

   Donato “Danny” Persico entered the submarine’s escape hatch, crawling up a steel ladder as his hands were too chilled to grasp the ladder’s rungs.

   Persico, who lived on Broad Street on Amsterdam’s South Side, was one of the survivors from the submarine U.S.S. Squalus, which sank May 23, 1939 in the Atlantic Ocean off the Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire.

   Valves malfunctioned during a test dive on the new submarine.  The after compartments filled with water, drowning 26 men.  Squalus settled on the ocean floor in 243 feet of water.  Persico was almost crushed by a torpedo.

   "This happened so fast, there was no chance for an alarm," Persico told Daily Gazette. "We lost power and lost lights.”

   In forward compartments, sealed by watertight doors, 33 men were still alive. 

   "I had goose bumps. I was scared,” Persico said. At 20, he was the youngest man on board.  Survivors donned woolen coats and stayed still, using as little air as possible.

   Persico was among the last to be rescued on the fourth trip of a diving bell deployed from the rescue ship Falcon.  Rescuers used the McCann Submarine Rescue Chamber, a diving bell that could withstand depths beyond lethal limits.

   The first three trips went perfectly.  Captain Oliver Naquin, Persico and six other sailors were in the diving bell for the last rescue.  About halfway up, there were problems with the lifting cables.

   Rescuers dropped the diving bell back to the bottom and pulled it in by hand with only one frayed strand of cable.  The final rescue took many hours using that frayed cable.

   Persico’s father had died in 1929.  The family, including Persico’s mother Carmela Pinto, were kept informed as the rescue unfolded by Amsterdam Police who stopped at the family home with updates

   The family received two telegrams.  The first said Persico was alive.  The second said he had been rescued.

   When his mother visited Persico at a hospital after the rescue, he told her he would continue in the submarine service, adding his shipmates felt the same.

   The Navy was able to raise the Squalus. It was repaired and recommissioned as the Sailfish and was awarded nine battle stars in World War II.

   Persico served aboard two other submarines.  One of them, U.S.S. Batfish, sank three Japanese subs.  He earned a Bronze Star.  A stone marking his Navy service is at Fifth Ward Veterans Park.  

   His nephew Anthony Signoracci said Persico, “Always had a sly smile on his face.  I think it was because he cheated certain death.” 

   Persico retired from the Navy in 1956 as a chief torpedo man and recruiter and then had a career as a heavy equipment salesman in the Capital Region for L.B. Smith Company.

   Amsterdam historian Hugh Donlon wrote the Recorder story in 1961 when Persico visited Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for the first time since 1939.  He was there for the launch of the nuclear submarine Tinosa. 

   On hand for a picture were Persico, Congressman Sam Stratton and John Donlon, Hugh’s son.  John was executive officer of Tinosa and later commanded nuclear submarines.

   Persico married Felicia Puglia of Amsterdam in 1973. They met at the bar of the former Peter Stuyvesant Hotel in Amsterdam.  They married years later when Persico returned to Amsterdam after his mother died. They had no children.  “He was my hero,” Felicia said.

   In 2000 Persico was one of the Squalus survivors at a ceremony naming a destroyer for the man who organized their rescue, Charles “Swede” Momsen.

   Persico died in 2001. The intersection of Florida Avenue and Bridge Street was named Persico Square that year.

Amsterdam History from YouTube

Posted by rgoing

Mohawk Valley  Weather, Monday, July 3, 2023

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

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Hands too chilled to grasp the ladder’s rungs

By Bob Cudmore

   Donato “Danny” Persico entered the submarine’s escape hatch, crawling up a steel ladder as his hands were too chilled to grasp the ladder’s rungs.

   Persico, who lived on Broad Street on Amsterdam’s South Side, was one of the survivors from the submarine U.S.S. Squalus, which sank May 23, 1939 in the Atlantic Ocean off the Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire.

   Valves malfunctioned during a test dive on the new submarine.  The after compartments filled with water, drowning 26 men.  Squalus settled on the ocean floor in 243 feet of water.  Persico was almost crushed by a torpedo.

   "This happened so fast, there was no chance for an alarm," Persico told Daily Gazette. "We lost power and lost lights.”

   In forward compartments, sealed by watertight doors, 33 men were still alive. 

   "I had goose bumps. I was scared,” Persico said. At 20, he was the youngest man on board.  Survivors donned woolen coats and stayed still, using as little air as possible.

   Persico was among the last to be rescued on the fourth trip of a diving bell deployed from the rescue ship Falcon.  Rescuers used the McCann Submarine Rescue Chamber, a diving bell that could withstand depths beyond lethal limits.

   The first three trips went perfectly.  Captain Oliver Naquin, Persico and six other sailors were in the diving bell for the last rescue.  About halfway up, there were problems with the lifting cables.

   Rescuers dropped the diving bell back to the bottom and pulled it in by hand with only one frayed strand of cable.  The final rescue took many hours using that frayed cable.

   Persico’s father had died in 1929.  The family, including Persico’s mother Carmela Pinto, were kept informed as the rescue unfolded by Amsterdam Police who stopped at the family home with updates

   The family received two telegrams.  The first said Persico was alive.  The second said he had been rescued.

   When his mother visited Persico at a hospital after the rescue, he told her he would continue in the submarine service, adding his shipmates felt the same.

   The Navy was able to raise the Squalus. It was repaired and recommissioned as the Sailfish and was awarded nine battle stars in World War II.

   Persico served aboard two other submarines.  One of them, U.S.S. Batfish, sank three Japanese subs.  He earned a Bronze Star.  A stone marking his Navy service is at Fifth Ward Veterans Park.  

   His nephew Anthony Signoracci said Persico, “Always had a sly smile on his face.  I think it was because he cheated certain death.” 

   Persico retired from the Navy in 1956 as a chief torpedo man and recruiter and then had a career as a heavy equipment salesman in the Capital Region for L.B. Smith Company.

   Amsterdam historian Hugh Donlon wrote the Recorder story in 1961 when Persico visited Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for the first time since 1939.  He was there for the launch of the nuclear submarine Tinosa. 

   On hand for a picture were Persico, Congressman Sam Stratton and John Donlon, Hugh’s son.  John was executive officer of Tinosa and later commanded nuclear submarines.

   Persico married Felicia Puglia of Amsterdam in 1973. They met at the bar of the former Peter Stuyvesant Hotel in Amsterdam.  They married years later when Persico returned to Amsterdam after his mother died. They had no children.  “He was my hero,” Felicia said.

   In 2000 Persico was one of the Squalus survivors at a ceremony naming a destroyer for the man who organized their rescue, Charles “Swede” Momsen.

   Persico died in 2001. The intersection of Florida Avenue and Bridge Street was named Persico Square that year.

The Historians with Bob Cudmore 

July

Here’s the schedule (subject to change):

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

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

Friday, July 21, 2023-Episode 484-Lorissa Rinehart has written a biography of groundbreaking female photojournalist and war correspondent Dickey Chapelle titled First to the Front.

Friday, July 28, 2023- Episode 485-On the road to our 500th episode.  Larry Gooley wrote the history of Adirondack serial killer Robert Garrow.  Gooley was interviewed in March 2015 on Episode 49 of The Historians Podcast.

Please contribute to the 2023 Historians Podcast fund drive 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! 

Schenectady County Historical Society

YouTube

Colonial society was not free or equal. In this video we look at the people who are most often overlooked or forgotten when talking about New York States Past. We'll be talking about slavery at the Mabee Farm. We're always excited when school groups come to visit! But when they can't visit, we've made a series of videos to serve as a virtual tour. This video is designed to speak to the NYS 4th Grade Curriculum but all others are free to watch.

Episode 433-A history of the Mohawk River with Mary Zawacki, executive director of the Schenectady County Historical Society. When the last Ice Age began to melt 22,000 years ago, the Mohawk River flowed with more force than Niagara Falls.

Mohawk Valley 4th of July Weekend Weather, Sunday, July 2, 2023

66 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:18AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

4th at The Fort this Weekend 

Fort Plain Museum

https://fortplainmuseum.org/viewevent.aspx?ID=1078

Summer years ago in Amsterdam

By Bob Cudmore

        In 1896, there was horse racing in Amsterdam in July with the summer meet of the Amsterdam Fair and Driving Association.  According to the web site www.mohawkvalleywev.com, the summer of 1900 did not have an “exceedingly hot day” until July 8. 

In 1912, public concerts began in July near Amsterdam’s Market and Main streets.  A recreation camp for National Guard soldiers was opened in the summer of 1914 in Tribes Hill; 54 students were attending Amsterdam summer school that year. 

The first 1918 pilgrimage to Auriesville Shrine took place August 4 with the faithful coming from Albany and Schenectady. 

SUMMER GOLF

        The first golf course built in the Amsterdam area was the private Antlers Country Club, opened in 1901 on land in Fort Johnson and Tribes Hill off Route 5.  Today, the facility is the Rolling Hills Golf Course.

City residents discussed the idea of an Amsterdam municipal course as early as 1929.  By 1934, the choice was made to build on 200 acres of farmland on the border between the city and town of Amsterdam off Van Dyke Avenue.

Construction was made possible through a $100,000 federal appropriation and $23,000 in city funds.  The course opened in 1938.  Mayor Arthur Carter was instrumental in advocating for the golf course and the facility is named for him. 

The designer was Robert Trent Jones, who went on to be a legend in golf course design.  A native of England who grew up in Rochester, New York, Jones created his own landscape architecture curriculum while attending Cornell University. He began his career by designing six federally funded golf courses, including Amsterdam’s.

VACANT SUMMER STREETS

On warm summer evenings in the 1940s, the streets of Amsterdam’s West End were sometimes deserted.

        To supplement food available under wartime rationing, the Italian-American residents were tending vegetable gardens on the fertile flat land south of their homes between the railroad tracks and Mohawk River.

        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 southern Italian communities such as Pisciotta in the province of Campania.

THE BAND PLAYED

        Summertime in the 1940s meant concerts performed by the Mohawk Mills Band, formed from employees of the carpet mill and directed by Frank Musolff until he entered military service in 1942.  Then, Musolff’s brother Harry became band director.

        Reminiscent of issues faced today by the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra at Riverlink Park, the Mohawk Mills Band was once bested by a freight train in an East End performance at Coessens Park in the late 1940s.

        The band played the overture to “Oklahoma” and had the tune down pat, according to Harry Musolff’s son, Harry Irving Musolff.

        A long freight train rumbled by making it impossible for the musicians to hear each other.  When the train finally passed, the trumpets had finished but the trombones were still playing.

PRIDE AND A PARADE 

        In July of 1954, Amsterdam celebrated its 150th birthday with a ten-division parade.  The Vail Mills drive-in float featuring young women in bikinis was a crowd pleaser. 

Celebrations went on for weeks at local taverns and ethnic social clubs, which had chapters of the Brothers of the Brush (who did not shave) and Sisters of the Swish (who wore long dresses).

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. 

Ironically, one of the floats in the 1954 parade was a flying carpet.  Within a year, Bigelow-Sanford, one of the city’s major carpet makers, was moving out of town.

Saturday, July 1, 2023-From the archives- Episode 121, July 22, 2016- Jack Kelly discusses topics as diverse as the origin of the Mormon religion and how Americans learned how to make cement in his book “Heaven’s Ditch: God, Gold, and Murder on the Erie Canal”

Sunday, July 2, 2023 -Focus on History- Amsterdam man among those rescued from a sunken submarine

As The Historians Podcast makes a path to #500 this fall, we look back... 

Bob Cudmore on YouTube

August 18, 2016

The Jewish View

Bob has authored three books about the Mohawk Valley in which he discusses the area’s connection to Kirk Douglas, Sam Goldwyn, Lucius Littauer and Rabbi Bloom. Two mayors of Amsterdam were Jewish. There were many non-Jewish connections as well that would surprise you such as Ed Sullivan and Fredric Remington. This is a fascinating recollection of the Mohawk Valley communities of Amsterdam, Gloversville and Fonda, yes, Henry, Peter and Jane Fonda’s roots are from the Mohawk Valley.

Tomorrow

Friday, June 30, 2023-Episode 481--Chris Wimmer is author of The Summer of 1876: Outlaws, Lawmen, and Legends in the Season That Defined the American West 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, June 29, 2023

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

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Thursday, June 29, 2023

Summer in Amsterdam years ago. 

 In 1896, there was horse racing in Amsterdam in July with the summer meet of the Amsterdam Fair and Driving Association.  According to the web site www.mohawkvalleywev.com, the summer of 1900 did not have an “exceedingly hot day” until July 8.

As The Historians Podcast makes a path to #500 this fall, we look back... 

Bob Cudmore on YouTube

August 18, 2016

The Jewish View

Bob has authored three books about the Mohawk Valley in which he discusses the area’s connection to Kirk Douglas, Sam Goldwyn, Lucius Littauer and Rabbi Bloom. Two mayors of Amsterdam were Jewish. There were many non-Jewish connections as well that would surprise you such as Ed Sullivan and Fredric Remington. This is a fascinating recollection of the Mohawk Valley communities of Amsterdam, Gloversville and Fonda, yes, Henry, Peter and Jane Fonda’s roots are from the Mohawk Valley.

Friday, June 30, 2023-Episode 481--Chris Wimmer is author of The Summer of 1876: Outlaws, Lawmen, and Legends in the Season That Defined the American West 

The Summer of 1876 weaves together the timelines of the events that made these men legends to demonstrate the overlapping context of their stories and to illustrate the historical importance of that summer, all layered with highlights of significant milestones in 1876: the inaugural baseball season of the National League; the final year of President Ulysses S. Grant’s embattled administration; the debut of an invention called the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell; the release of Mark Twain’s novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer;” and many more.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, June 28, 2023

67 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:44AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Bob with Kitchen Table History

The Historians Podcast 2023 fund drive is at the midpoint and we’re $900 below where we should be.  If you can, please make a donation today toward our $7000 goal.  Help us provide more history programing on Old Fort Johnson, songs of the American Revolution, the Wild West and much more.  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 or small are appreciated.

Guest: Bob Cudmore (Columnist) and Author of "The Hidden History of the Mohawk Valley". 

Ann Parillo Schenectady Today back in 2013

by Gregg Millett

Monday, June 26, 2023-Story behind the story-Dave Noyes growing up in Fort Johnson; plus an apology...story about 6 minutes.

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Amsterdam’s unforgettable day. 

Sam Vomero will never forget Monday, July 20th, 1942, the day the Yankees and the carnival both came to Amsterdam.

Wednesday, June 28, 2023-From the Archives- Episode 44, January 23, 2015 Richard Norton Smith author of “On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller.”

Thursday, June 29, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Summer in Amsterdam years ago. 

Friday, June 30, 2023-Episode 481--Chris Wimmer is author of The Summer of 1876: Outlaws, Lawmen, and Legends in the Season That Defined the American West 

The summer of 1876 was a key time period in the development of the mythology of the Old West. Many individuals who are considered legends by modern listeners were involved in events that began their notoriety or turned out to be the most famous—or infamous—moments of their lives. Those individuals were Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Wild Bill Hickok, and Jesse James.

Growing up in Fort Johnson and an apology

By Bob Cudmore

   Constant reader and frequent contributor David Edward Noyes, 92, of Evergreen, Colorado, has passed away.

   Dave was born in 1931, the son of Harold and Edwina  Gerling Noyes.  He was the second of four boys and grew up in Fort Johnson. 

   Dave said when he was a child, adults in Fort Johnson provided children lifetime values by deed and example and maintained an active community. 

   He recalled commercial institutions in Fort Johnson such as Whalen’s grocery store, Huen’s gas station, Sweet’s furniture store and Tollner’s ice cream shop.

   Dave was the second of four brothers.  His brother Dan drowned in the Mohawk River in 1947; his brother Randy died in an accident while serving the U.S. Air Force. 

   Dave attended Fort Johnson grammar and junior high schools. 

   The Fort Johnson Athletic Association produced top speed skaters in the 1940s including Hank Flesch, Don Talmadge, Gene Gage, George Hare and Ted Ellenwood, Jr.

   Dave described himself as one of the “run of the mill” skaters in Fort Johnson, winning a few medals along the way.  He kept skating until knee and hip replacement surgeries in 2000.

   Dave learned to fly at the Carpet City Airport at Midline Road and Route 107 in Perth.  The local airport flourished in the late 1940s.

   Dave was in the Air Scout program in 1947.  The curriculum officially included only pre-flight activities, but Dave and his fellow Scouts actually flew planes with local World War II veterans as instructors. 

   The Scouts wore powder blue uniforms and had World War II surplus gear at the airport including a miniature jet engine. 

   “Firing it up was quite impressive,” Dave said.  “Pleasant memories, great learning experience.”

   Dave worked on footballs for Collette’s in Amsterdam as a high school student. He was paid in cash, some of which went into his bank account, Dave said, “With amount entered via ink pen (still have those bank books).”

   He graduated in 1949 from Wilbur H. Lynch Senior High in Amsterdam and went on to the SUNY College of Forestry and Environmental Science in Syracuse.

   He entered the US Army in 1952 and served with an armored division in Germany.  After military service he resumed his college studies and graduated with honors.  He married Mary Ann Gawron of Amsterdam, who survives him, in 1956.

   Dave joined the Johns Manville Corporation as a research engineer.  His career took him to the world headquarters of Johns Manville in Denver.  He retired in 1994 as a manager of environmental affairs.

   The village of Fort Johnson is slated to formally dissolve on the last day of this year, becoming a hamlet in the town of Amsterdam.  The town will become responsible for public works in Fort Johnson.  Residents voted 90 to 23 to dissolve the village in a referendum late last year.

   Dave’s daughter, Julie Matern, said, “Dad did know about this; although he understood the logic of it, he was disappointed/saddened by the absorption of his ‘little burg.’  Not a big fan of consolidation in general.

   “I am happy to report his childhood home is in the best shape it’s been in 40 years.”

An apology

   In a letter to the editor Mark Gibbons of Niskayuna properly criticizes me for using the word “immigrant” in a recent column to describe a person who had moved from Puerto Rico to New York State.

   Mr. Gibbons correctly points out Puerto Ricans are American citizens as Puerto Rico is a U. S. territory.  I apologize and regret the error which, as Mr. Gibbons writes, unfortunately “adds to this misguided notion” that “Puerto Ricans are foreigners, not American citizens.”

More Wild West-no one is sure if they knew it at the time or they needed to pay the rent

Episode 398- John Boessenecker, author of Wildcat: The Untold Story of Pearl Hart, the Wild West's Most Notorious Woman Bandit.

Mohawk Valley Weather for a New Week, Monday, June 26, 2023

Humidity 90%

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

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

The Historians Podcast 2023 fund drive is at the midpoint and we’re $900 below where we should be.  If you can, please make a donation today toward our $7000 goal.  Help us provide more history programing on Old Fort Johnson, songs of the American Revolution, the Wild West and much more.  

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 or small are appreciated.

Dave was the second of four brothers.  His brother Dan drowned in the Mohawk River in 1947; his brother Randy died in an accident while serving the U.S. Air Force. 

Growing up in Fort Johnson and an apology

By Bob Cudmore

   Constant reader and frequent contributor David Edward Noyes, 92, of Evergreen, Colorado, has passed away.

   Dave was born in 1931, the son of Harold and Edwina  Gerling Noyes.  He was the second of four boys and grew up in Fort Johnson. 

   Dave said when he was a child, adults in Fort Johnson provided children lifetime values by deed and example and maintained an active community. 

   He recalled commercial institutions in Fort Johnson such as Whalen’s grocery store, Huen’s gas station, Sweet’s furniture store and Tollner’s ice cream shop.

   Dave was the second of four brothers.  His brother Dan drowned in the Mohawk River in 1947; his brother Randy died in an accident while serving the U.S. Air Force. 

   Dave attended Fort Johnson grammar and junior high schools. 

   The Fort Johnson Athletic Association produced top speed skaters in the 1940s including Hank Flesch, Don Talmadge, Gene Gage, George Hare and Ted Ellenwood, Jr.

   Dave described himself as one of the “run of the mill” skaters in Fort Johnson, winning a few medals along the way.  He kept skating until knee and hip replacement surgeries in 2000.

   Dave learned to fly at the Carpet City Airport at Midline Road and Route 107 in Perth.  The local airport flourished in the late 1940s.

   Dave was in the Air Scout program in 1947.  The curriculum officially included only pre-flight activities, but Dave and his fellow Scouts actually flew planes with local World War II veterans as instructors. 

   The Scouts wore powder blue uniforms and had World War II surplus gear at the airport including a miniature jet engine. 

   “Firing it up was quite impressive,” Dave said.  “Pleasant memories, great learning experience.”

   Dave worked on footballs for Collette’s in Amsterdam as a high school student. He was paid in cash, some of which went into his bank account, Dave said, “With amount entered via ink pen (still have those bank books).”

   He graduated in 1949 from Wilbur H. Lynch Senior High in Amsterdam and went on to the SUNY College of Forestry and Environmental Science in Syracuse.

   He entered the US Army in 1952 and served with an armored division in Germany.  After military service he resumed his college studies and graduated with honors.  He married Mary Ann Gawron of Amsterdam, who survives him, in 1956.

   Dave joined the Johns Manville Corporation as a research engineer.  His career took him to the world headquarters of Johns Manville in Denver.  He retired in 1994 as a manager of environmental affairs.

   The village of Fort Johnson is slated to formally dissolve on the last day of this year, becoming a hamlet in the town of Amsterdam.  The town will become responsible for public works in Fort Johnson.  Residents voted 90 to 23 to dissolve the village in a referendum late last year.

   Dave’s daughter, Julie Matern, said, “Dad did know about this; although he understood the logic of it, he was disappointed/saddened by the absorption of his ‘little burg.’  Not a big fan of consolidation in general.

   “I am happy to report his childhood home is in the best shape it’s been in 40 years.”

An apology

   In a letter to the editor Mark Gibbons of Niskayuna properly criticizes me for using the word “immigrant” in a recent column to describe a person who had moved from Puerto Rico to New York State.

   Mr. Gibbons correctly points out Puerto Ricans are American citizens as Puerto Rico is a U. S. territory.  I apologize and regret the error which, as Mr. Gibbons writes, unfortunately “adds to this misguided notion” that “Puerto Ricans are foreigners, not American citizens.”

Monday, June 26, 2023-Story behind the story-Dave Noyes growing up in Fort Johnson; plus an apology. Monday story about 6 minutes.

Tuesday, June 27, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam’s unforgettable day. 

Wednesday, June 28, 2023-From the Archives- Episode 44, January 23, 2015 Richard Norton Smith author of “On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller.”

Thursday, June 29, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Summer in Amsterdam years ago. 

Friday, June 30, 2023-Episode 481--Chris Wimmer is author of The Summer of 1876: Outlaws, Lawmen, and Legends in the Season That Defined the American West 

About 20 Years Ago Bob went back on The Radio in The Mohawk Valley, and then about 10 years ago...

One Man Show (Bob Cudmore slide show with music One Man Show written by GOD and Tom Staudle, performed by 2 members of the Tom Staudle choir (Windows Movie)) written 10-27 thru 10-31-2014

The Historians Out West this Week

Episode 398- John Boessenecker, author of Wildcat: The Untold Story of Pearl Hart, the Wild West's Most Notorious Woman Bandit.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, June 25, 2023

65 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:06AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

The Arkell Museum in Canajoharie has displayed Vogt’s work as has the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.

Meet Canajoharie, NY!

https://villageofcanajoharie.org/

Homeless man sketched the homes of others

By Bob Cudmore

   Fritz Vogt slept in barns and relieved the pain of rheumatism with alcohol. He spoke broken English and died at a poorhouse. Yet he left a collection of 200 drawings that have been prized by art collectors and exhibited at museums

   “No one knows what Fritz Vogt did during the first 48 years of his life in Germany, where he was born in 1841,” wrote New York Times reviewer Ken Johnson in 2003.

   Vogt came to America in 1890 and spent his last ten years as a traveling artist, recording what Johnson called “lucid descriptions” of the homes of clients, primarily farmers in Schoharie, Montgomery, Otsego, Fulton and Herkimer counties.    

   He did 40 drawings of farms, churches and other buildings in the town of Sharon, for example, and 25 in Canajoharie. 

   He died in the poorhouse of the town of Palatine in 1900.  The ledger from the Commissioner of the Poor in Palatine for that year, stored at the Old Court House in Fonda, has a notation for a request for remuneration for Vogt’s burial expenses.

   The late W. Parker Hayes, Jr., a project director for the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibition service, produced a catalog book for Vogt’s retrospective, “Drawn Home: Fritz Vogt’s Rural America.”  The catalog was published by the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown.  The Arkell Museum in Canajoharie has displayed Vogt’s work as has the American Folk Art Museum in New York City.

   At first, Vogt drew realistically with graphite pencils then switched to colored pencils and his work became more complex with multiple perspectives.

   “Somebody could have happened to buy him a set of colored pencils,” Hayes said. “Or somebody said ‘I want this in color’ and all of a sudden his constituency decided, ‘Hey I want my work in color.’”

   Why did farmers want pictures of their homes? Hayes said New York agriculture was facing competition from the Midwest. There was nostalgia for the dwindling numbers of “gentleman farmers.” Vogt’s drawings also mirror another late 19th century social trend—publication of county atlases depicting the homes of wealthy people.        

   Hayes was able to chronicle aspects of Vogt’s life from oral histories recorded in the 1960s, interviews with elderly people who had known Vogt when they were children.  Hayes created a database of Vogt’s work to fill in biographical details in that the artist dated and described each drawing.

   Hayes said the oral histories noted that Vogt picked hops, “In August of every year from 1891 until he died he didn’t do any drawings.  August is the beginning of the hops picking season.”

   A few drawings indicate that Vogt was paid a couple of dollars for a specific piece. Vogt was more often paid in kind, with a place to stay, meals or alcohol. 

   Vogt fit in with the region’s existing German-American population. “He relied on an ethnic network to get the basic things in life and to find patrons,” Hayes said. Vogt had a “good rapport” with children and may have earned money by teaching German.

   According to Hayes, Vogt was “a short, smallish man with a quick step, yet slightly rotund.” Hayes added, “He wore five or six second-hand shirts layered over each other, the underlying shirts visible through holes in the outer layers. He slept in the shelter of barns between two buffalo-hides on a pile of hay. When Vogt entered a home to complete his drawings, he wore a pair of slippers or crude shoes fashioned from carpet remnants.”

   Hayes wrote, “We are left with the great irony of a homeless man who expressed an intimate knowledge of the idea of home.”

Friday, June 23, 2023-Episode 480 

A highlights edition with excerpts from podcasts on the Holocaust, Amsterdam history, Harlem, the Battle of Bennington, desegregation, Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Johnson.

...and into The Weekend

Saturday, June 24, 2023-From the archives- Episode 41, January 2, 2015, Adirondack expert Philip G. Terrie is author of the book “Contested Terrain: A New History of Nature and People in the Adirondacks.”

Sunday, June 25, 2023

Focus on History- Dave Noyes, growing up in Fort Johnson; plus an apology

Constant reader and frequent contributor David Edward Noyes, 92, of Evergreen, Colorado, has passed away. Dave was born in 1931

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coming this Saturday, June 24 and every Saturday

 [email protected]

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, June 22, 2023

54 (Cool) degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:21AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

The Historians Podcast fund drive has raised $2610, the end zone $7000 for 2023. It's a bit of a tall order. Please help us provide more history programing on Fort Ticonderoga, Old Fort Johnson and the Wild West and coming up Movie History. (Episode #500 this November) Please donate online with the link at the top of the page or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. Thank you 

Master furniture maker John Los will be the featured speaker for the first Wednesday lecture of the Old Fort Johnson summer  series. He will demonstrate how the classic American Windsor chair was made, using four variations of the style that he built and donated to Old Fort Johnson.

https://www.oldfortjohnson.org/

Tomorrow, Thursday, June 22, 2023

Homeless man sketched the homes of others by Bob Cudmore

   Fritz Vogt slept in barns and relieved the pain of rheumatism with alcohol. He spoke broken English and died at a poorhouse. Yet he left a collection of 200 drawings that have been prized by art collectors and exhibited at museums

Fritz Vogt at The Arkell

http://www.arkellmuseum.org/content/fritz-vogt-drawings-sense-place

Friday, June 23, 2023-Episode 480 

A highlights edition with excerpts from podcasts on the Holocaust, Amsterdam history, Harlem, the Battle of Bennington, desegregation, Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Johnson.

Sign-up for the Bob Cudmore email blast

In the email early on Saturday

 [email protected]

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, June 21, 2023

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

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/