The Historians

   In 1945 many of the women from Luxuray used their own funds to help pay for a bingo party for soldiers recovering from war wounds at a Utica hospital. 

This afternoon at 3 in Amsterdam Trinity Lutheran Church, 42 Guy Park Ave. Requiem: What remains is love by Maria Riccio Bryce

Luxuray in Fort Plain; Chuctanunda trail in Amsterdam

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History 

   A company with the poetic name Luxuray bought a multi-storied factory building on Willett Street in Fort Plain in 1931 to manufacture women’s underwear, mainly panties.

   The building was first used in 1874 by the Shipman Spring and Axle Works.  That business moved to Illinois in 1894, a loss keenly felt in Fort Plain according to historian Rob Carter. 

   From 1900 to 1931 the Bailey brothers wove silk in the Willett Street complex.  Then Luxuray entered the picture,

   Soon after acquiring the Fort Plain property in 1931, Luxuray began expanding.

   “When this work is finished,” wrote the Otsego Farmer newspaper in 1933, “Luxuray Inc. will be one of the most complete and modern underwear plants in the United States, with a force of employees totaling from 250 to 300.”

   The Gloversville Morning Herald that year reported Luxuray was implementing two shifts in Fort Plain and making rayon underwear. 

   Luxuray sold its own line of panties and supplied stores like Macy’s and J.C. Penney’s.  Luxuray had a factory store in Fort Plain. 

   One company executive in the 1970s boasted, “We make everything from a skimpy string bikini up to a size 68-inch hip. 

   The predominantly female Luxuray employees, most of them operating sewing machines, were noticed in local newspapers for sporting events, employee parties and good deeds.  Luxuray regularly advertised for more workers. 

   Rolls of cotton, nylon, acetate and other materials were trucked to Fort Plain, and Luxuray’s cutting room staff was responsible for minimizing fabric waste. 

   In 1945 many of the women from Luxuray used their own funds to help pay for a bingo party for soldiers recovering from war wounds at a Utica hospital. 

  Some 250 employees and friends gathered for Luxuray’s annual clambake and dance in 1948.  There was also a softball game and tug-of-war.

   Luxuray had several corporate owners.  In the 1950s it became part of Beaunit Corporation.  The Fort Plain plant was sold to a group of local Mohawk Valley investors in 1974.  The number of employees had shrunk from several hundred to about 70 people.

   “They may not know it,” wrote reporter Charles Tobey in a story in the Courier Standard Enterprise in 1984, “But right now, thousands of women are wearing panties made in Fort Plain.”

   Harry Reeder, manager of the plant in the 1970s and 1980s, told the newspaper, “We like to think of ourselves as a good place to work.”

   Lightning apparently started a fire that damaged the roof of the Fort Plain factory in 1986.  The company kept going.

   Foreign competition led to Luxuray’s demise.  The company merged with Johnstown Knit in the closing years of the 20th century.  By 1999 underwear production had ceased in Fort Plain. 

North Chuctanunda Creek Friends to Meet

   Friends of North Chuctanunda Creek Incorporated will celebrate National Trails Day at their first public meeting Saturday June 3, 9:30 am at the Clock Tower Building, 37 Prospect Street in Amsterdam. 

   Maps will show completed trails and future construction.  There will be refreshments.

   An elevator to the top floor of the Clock Building will enable attendees to enjoy the view from the historic structure that once was part of Bigelow Sanford Carpet and later toymaker Coleco.

  Outdoors on June 3, John Naple will lead an optional mile-long walk along the North Chuctanunda Creek.  The walk will go through the former Sanford Mill Complex from Locust Avenue to Church Street, stop at the creek overlook in back of Kelloggs and Miller’s former linseed oil plant, and go down Church Street to opposite City Hall.

   The North Chuctanunda Creek provided water power to many of Amsterdam’s 19th century mills.

Monday, May 29, 2023

Story behind the story- Women’s panties made in Fort Plain; N. Chuctanunda Creek Trail

The story from Bob about 6 minutes

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Long distance love

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Historians Episode 213-Tim Wendel is author of a family memoir about the 1960s medical team at Roswell Park in Buffalo who made great strides in treating cancer: “Cancer Crossings: A Brother, His Doctors and the Quest for a Cure to Childhood Leukemia.”

Thursday, June 1, 2023

Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Weston the pedestrian

Friday, June 2, 2023-Episode 477- Curator Matthew Keagle discusses Fort Ticonderoga historic site this season.  Visitors will experience 1760 at the fort and see how British soldiers and American provincials ensure military dominance on Lake Champlain and deep into the heart of French Canada.

Sign-up for the Cudmore email "Blast" sent early each Saturday

Be the first on your block

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Mohawk Valley Memorial Day Weekend Weather, Sunday, May 28, 2023

53 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:02AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

7 O'Clock this Evening First Reformed Church, 8 N. Church St., Schenectady 

and Sunday 3PM in Amsterdam at Trinity Lutheran Church, 42 Guy Park Ave.

Requiem: What remains is love by Maria Riccio Bryce

Bob Cudmore and Maria Riccio Bryce "Requiem" The Conversation

Episode 476-Journalist Paul Kix documents how the 1963 desegregation campaign in Birmingham Alabama changed race relations in America.  Martin Luther King, Jr., was imprisoned and wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  Kix’s book is titled You Have to Be Prepared to Die before You Can Begin to Live.

Entertainer-turned-activist Harry Belafonte risked his life to post bail to get Dr. King out of jail.  Kix says everything that happened after Birmingham—from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to Southern states allowing interracial marriage--stemmed from this one moment in time sixty years ago.

Saturday, May 27, 2023- Episode 126, August 26, 2016-Christopher Kelly talks about the Romans, Garibaldi, Mussolini and more in discussing his latest book with Stuart Laycock, “Italy Invades: How the Italians Conquered the World.”

Italy Invades, full of restless adventurers, canny generals, and the occasional scoundrel, is a fast-paced and compelling read, the perfect sequel to America Invades.

Recreating their success with America Invades, Christopher Kelly and Stuart Laycock take another global tour, this time starting from Italy and exploring that country's military involvements throughout the ancient and modern worlds.

The Sunday Bob Cudmore Story

May 28, 2023-Focus on History-Women’s panties made in Fort Plain; N. Chuctanunda Creek

Soon after acquiring the Fort Plain property in 1931, Luxuray began expanding

On your schedule for Next Weekend

North Chuctanunda Creek Friends to Meet, Saturday June 3, 2023 9:30 am

Friends of North Chuctanunda Creek Incorporated will celebrate National Trails Day at their first public meeting at the Clock Tower Building, 37 Prospect Street in Amsterdam.

    Maps will show completed trails and future construction.  There will be refreshments. An elevator to the top floor of the Clock Building will enable attendees to enjoy the view from the historic structure that once was part of Bigelow Sanford Carpet and later toymaker Coleco. Outdoors on June 3, John Naple will lead an optional mile-long walk along the North Chuctanunda Creek.  The walk will go through the former Sanford Mill Complex from Locust Avenue to Church Street, stop at the creek overlook in back of Kelloggs and Miller’s former linseed oil plant, and go down Church Street to opposite City Hall. The North Chuctanunda Creek provided water power to many of Amsterdam’s 19th century mills.

Sign-up for the Cudmore email "Blast" sent early each Saturday, keep up with The Mohawk Valley History Schedule

 [email protected]

Mohawk Valley Memorial Day Weekend Weather, Saturday, May 27, 2023

46 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:33AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Choose your day, Tomorrow, Saturday or Sunday(Sunday at 3PM in Amsterdam)

Requiem: What remains is love by Maria Riccio Bryce will be performed this weekend—Friday, May 26 at 7 p.m. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Hackett Blvd., Albany; Saturday, May 27 at 7 p.m. First Reformed Church, 8 N. Church St., Schenectady and Sunday, May 28 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 42 Guy Park Ave., Amsterdam.

Maria Riccio Bryce conversation with Bob about the production

History sites can be found along Route 5

By Bob Cudmore

        An approximately 30-mile stretch of Route 5 in Montgomery County is home to enough historic places to make for a day trip this summer for those who are keen on heritage tourism.  Most of the sites date back to the Colonial era.

        Starting in Amsterdam, just across the railroad tracks from Route 5 at Russo’s Tavern, an historic site in its own right, is Guy Park Manor.

Sir William Johnson, the area’s most prominent settler of the Colonial era, built the home for his nephew and son-in-law, Colonel Guy Johnson.  Guy came to America in 1756 and sought out his uncle, marrying Sir William’s daughter Polly. 

Sir William first built them a wooden home called Guy Park that was struck by lightning in 1773.  The stone building that still stands was then built on the site. Sir William died in 1774.  Guy and Polly didn’t have much time to enjoy their new home, fleeing for Canada in 1775 as anti-British sentiment grew during the buildup to the Revolutionary War.  Guy Park Manor is also the location of a riverside park and Mohawk River/Erie Canal Lock 11. 

        A mile west of Amsterdam in the village of Fort Johnson is the Old Fort itself, built by Sir William in 1749 as his residence.  Operated today by the Montgomery County Historical Society, the Old Fort boasts period furnishings and a restored 18th century outhouse, one of the oldest in America.  Old Fort Johnson is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. 

        Traveling west to Fonda, the Montgomery County Department of History and Archives is across the railroad tracks from Route 5 in the historic Old County Courthouse on Park Street.

        The department contains numerous historical documents.  The facility also attracts amateur and professional genealogists from around the country to search birth records from the Colonial era and later for a large part of Upstate New York.

Just west of Fonda on Route 5 is the Franciscan shrine honoring Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, a 17th century Mohawk Indian who converted to Catholicism.  Kateri is being considered for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church.  Up the hill from the shrine is the site of the Mohawk village of Caughnawaga where Kateri lived much of her life.

Reverend Thomas Grassmann, who started the shrine in 1938, put together most of the facility’s Native American collection. The shrine is open every day from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

        About seven miles west of Fonda on Route 5 is Kanatsiohareke, since 1993 home to a settlement of traditional Mohawk Indians.  Their annual summer festival will take place June 30 and July 1.

        The Route 5 villages of Palatine Bridge and Nelliston boast several historic homes.  Between the two villages is Palatine Church, a Colonial era building. 

Farther west on Route 5 is Fort Klock, two miles east of St. Johnsville.  A 1750 fur trading post, the fortified stone house typifies structures of the colonial era and the American Revolution.  Fort Klock is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.   

Another mile west on the highway is the 1747 Nellis Tavern, an ongoing restoration project of the Palatine Settlement Society.   Built by Christian Nellis in 1747 as a farmhouse, it is one of the few wooden buildings in the Mohawk Valley to survive the Revolutionary War.  A tavern by 1783, the building stayed in private hands until the 1960s. 

Friday, May 26, 2023-Episode 476-Journalist Paul Kix documents how the 1963 desegregation campaign in Birmingham Alabama changed race relations in America.  Martin Luther King, Jr., was imprisoned and wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  Kix’s book is titled You Have to Be Prepared to Die before You Can Begin to Live.

North Chuctanunda Creek Friends to Meet

Friends of North Chuctanunda Creek Incorporated will celebrate National Trails Day at their first public meeting Saturday June 3, 2023 9:30 am at the Clock Tower Building, 37 Prospect Street in Amsterdam.

    Maps will show completed trails and future construction.  There will be refreshments. An elevator to the top floor of the Clock Building will enable attendees to enjoy the view from the historic structure that once was part of Bigelow Sanford Carpet and later toymaker Coleco. Outdoors on June 3, John Naple will lead an optional mile-long walk along the North Chuctanunda Creek.  The walk will go through the former Sanford Mill Complex from Locust Avenue to Church Street, stop at the creek overlook in back of Kelloggs and Miller’s former linseed oil plant, and go down Church Street to opposite City Hall. The North Chuctanunda Creek provided water power to many of Amsterdam’s 19th century mills.

Sign-up for the Cudmore email "Blast" sent early each Saturday, keep up with The Mohawk Valley History Schedule

 [email protected]

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, May 25, 2023

42 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:31AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

This Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Requiem: What remains is love by Maria Riccio Bryce will be performed this weekend—Friday, May 26 at 7 p.m. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Hackett Blvd., Albany; Saturday, May 27 at 7 p.m. First Reformed Church, 8 N. Church St., Schenectady and Sunday, May 28 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 42 Guy Park Ave., Amsterdam.

Maria Riccio Bryce on The Historians

Wednesday, May 24, 2023- Episode 95, January 24, 2016- Jewelry designer and historian Aja Raden with an account of how jewels have affected the course of history.  Raden is author of “Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession and How Desire Shapes the World.”

Thursday, May 25, 2023-Route 5-History on the highway

An approximately 30-mile stretch of Route 5 in Montgomery County is home to enough historic places to make for a day trip this summer for those who are keen on heritage tourism.  Most of the sites date back to the Colonial era.

Friday, May 26, 2023-Episode 476-Journalist Paul Kix documents how the 1963 desegregation campaign in Birmingham Alabama changed race relations in America.  Martin Luther King, Jr., was imprisoned and wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  Kix’s book is titled You Have to Be Prepared to Die before You Can Begin to Live.

Coming in June

North Chuctanunda Creek Friends to Meet

   Friends of North Chuctanunda Creek Incorporated will celebrate National Trails Day at their first public meeting Saturday June 3, 2023 9:30 am at the Clock Tower Building, 37 Prospect Street in Amsterdam.  Maps will show completed trails and future construction.  There will be refreshments. An elevator to the top floor of the Clock Building will enable attendees to enjoy the view from the historic structure that once was part of Bigelow Sanford Carpet and later toymaker Coleco. Outdoors on June 3, John Naple will lead an optional mile-long walk along the North Chuctanunda Creek.  The walk will go through the former Sanford Mill Complex from Locust Avenue to Church Street, stop at the creek overlook in back of Kelloggs and Miller’s former linseed oil plant, and go down Church Street to opposite City Hall. The North Chuctanunda Creek provided water power to many of Amsterdam’s 19th century mills.

Sign-up for the Cudmore email "Blast" sent early each Saturday, keep up with The Mohawk Valley History Schedule

 [email protected]

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, May 24, 2023

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

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

The first Weekend in June

North Chuctanunda Creek Friends to Meet

   Friends of North Chuctanunda Creek Incorporated will celebrate National Trails Day at their first public meeting Saturday June 3, 2023 9:30 am at the Clock Tower Building, 37 Prospect Street in Amsterdam. 

   Maps will show completed trails and future construction.  There will be refreshments.

   An elevator to the top floor of the Clock Building will enable attendees to enjoy the view from the historic structure that once was part of Bigelow Sanford Carpet and later toymaker Coleco.

  Outdoors on June 3, John Naple will lead an optional mile-long walk along the North Chuctanunda Creek.  The walk will go through the former Sanford Mill Complex from Locust Avenue to Church Street, stop at the creek overlook in back of Kelloggs and Miller’s former linseed oil plant, and go down Church Street to opposite City Hall.

   The North Chuctanunda Creek provided water power to many of Amsterdam’s 19th century mills.

   “When this work is finished,” wrote the Otsego Farmer newspaper in 1933, “Luxuray Inc. will be one of the most complete and modern underwear plants in the United States, with a force of employees totaling from 250 to 300.”

Luxuray--an employment mainstay in 20th century Fort Plain

By Bob Cudmore

   A textile mill on Willett Street in Fort Plain produced women’s underwear, mainly panties, and was a major employer for most of the twentieth century.

   The multi-storied factory, which still stands on Willett Street, was occupied in 1874 by the Shipman Spring and Axle Works, previously located in nearby Springfield and Van Hornsville.

   Minden town historian Rob Carter wrote, “In the course of a business combination, the factory was removed to Chicago Heights, Illinois, in 1894. The loss of this industry to Fort Plain was keenly felt.”

   In about 1900, the Bailey brothers bought the Willett Street complex for their silk mill. That ran until 1931 when a company with the poetic sounding name of Luxuray bought the facility and embarked on an expansion.

   “When this work is finished,” wrote the Otsego Farmer newspaper in 1933, “Luxuray Inc. will be one of the most complete and modern underwear plants in the United States, with a force of employees totaling from 250 to 300.”

   The Gloversville Morning Herald that year reported Luxuray was implementing two shifts at its Fort Plain factory making rayon underwear. 

   The predominantly female Luxuray employees, most of them operating sewing machines, were regularly noticed in local newspapers for sporting events, employee parties and good deeds.  In 1945 many of the women from Luxuray used their own funds to help pay for a bingo party for soldiers recovering from war wounds at a Utica hospital.

  Some 250 employees and friends gathered for Luxuray’s annual clambake and dance in 1948.  There was also a softball game and tug-of-war.

   Luxuray sold its own line of panties and also supplied lingerie to stores like Macy’s and J.C. Penney’s.  Luxuray had a factory store in Fort Plain. 

   Luxuray had several corporate owners. In the 1950s it became part of the Beaunit Corporation.  The Fort Plain plant was sold to a group of Mohawk Valley investors in 1974.

   “They may not know it,” wrote reporter Charles Tobey in a feature story in the Courier Standard Enterprise in 1984, “But right now, thousands of women are wearing panties made in Fort Plain.”

   Harry Reeder, manager of the plant in the 1970s and 1980s, told the newspaper the number of employees had shrunk from several hundred to about 70 people. 

   "We have people here who have worked 40 or more years in this factory," Reeder said.

   “Ladies' panties always have been the dominant product at Luxuray, although some other items have been manufactured from time to time,” Reeder said, “We make everything from a skimpy string bikini up to a size 68-inch hip."

   Reeder added, “We like to think of ourselves as a good place to work.”

   Rolls of cotton, nylon, acetate and other materials were trucked to Fort Plain, and Luxuray’s cutting room staff was responsible for minimizing fabric waste.

   From there, the material went to the sewing machine operators, women who comprised the majority of the employees.

   Lightning apparently started a fire that damaged the roof of the Fort Plain factory in 1986.  The company kept going.

   Foreign competition led to Luxuray’s demise.  The company merged with Johnstown Knit in the closing years of the 20th century,

   By 1999 underwear production ceased.  People still work in the former Luxuray building, however.

   In 2000 the factory on Willett Street was purchased by entrepreneur Robert Hancock who established Glimmerglass Swim Spas and Pools in the building, manufacturers of fiberglass swimming pools. 

   Hancock also rents to several tenants including Chris and Julie Tackacs who operate Fort Plain Antiques and Salvage.  And the building houses a distillery, a high end machine shop and an office outfitting company.

Wednesday, May 24, 2023- Episode 95, January 24, 2016- Jewelry designer and historian Aja Raden with an account of how jewels have affected the course of history.  Raden is author of “Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession and How Desire Shapes the World.”

What makes a stone a jewel? What makes a jewel priceless? And why do we covet beautiful things? In this brilliant account of how eight jewels shaped the course of history, jeweler and scientist Aja Raden tells an original and often startling story about our unshakeable addiction to beauty and the darker side of human desire.

Thursday, May 25, 2023-Route 5-History on the highway.

Friday, May 26, 2023-Episode 476-Journalist Paul Kix documents how the 1963 desegregation campaign in Birmingham Alabama changed race relations in America.  Martin Luther King, Jr., was imprisoned and wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  Kix’s book is titled You Have to Be Prepared to Die before You Can Begin to Live.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Requiem: What remains is love by Maria Riccio Bryce will be performed this weekend—Friday, May 26 at 7 p.m. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Hackett Blvd., Albany; Saturday, May 27 at 7 p.m. First Reformed Church, 8 N. Church St., Schenectady and Sunday, May 28 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 42 Guy Park Ave., Amsterdam.

Maria Riccio Bryce and Bob Cudmore talk about her production of "Requiem"

Podcast 29 minutes

Sign-up for the Cudmore email "Blast" sent early each Saturday, keep up with The Mohawk Valley History Schedule

 [email protected]

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, May 23, 2023

47 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:01AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Historians Update Monday, May 22 at 5:55AM (Coffee Time)

Monday, May 22, 2023-The story behind the story-Amsterdam’s 1925 Progress Exposition(Monday Podcast 6 minutes)

Tuesday, May 23, 2023-Fort Plain’s Luxuray made women’s panties. 

A textile mill on Willett Street in Fort Plain produced women’s underwear, mainly panties, and was a major employer for most of the twentieth century

Wednesday, May 24, 2023- Episode 95, January 24, 2016- Jewelry designer and historian Aja Raden with an account of how jewels have affected the course of history.  Raden is author of “Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession and How Desire Shapes the World.”

Thursday, May 25, 2023-Route 5-History on the highway.

Friday, May 26, 2023-Episode 476-Journalist Paul Kix documents how the 1963 desegregation campaign in Birmingham Alabama changed race relations in America.  Martin Luther King, Jr., was imprisoned and wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  Kix’s book is titled You Have to Be Prepared to Die before You Can Begin to Live.

Requiem: What remains is love by Maria Riccio Bryce will be performed this weekend—Friday, May 26 at 7 p.m. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Hackett Blvd., Albany; Saturday, May 27 at 7 p.m. First Reformed Church, 8 N. Church St., Schenectady and Sunday, May 28 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 42 Guy Park Ave., Amsterdam.

The Bob Cudmore conversation with Maria

Bustling Amsterdam

Bustling Amsterdam sparkled in 1925 expo

By Bob Cudmore

        America was prospering in 1925 and local businesses staged Amsterdam’s Progress Exposition and Auto Show that year to show off that prosperity. 

“In the twenties, that was the heyday here,” said anthropologist Susan Dauria.  “The population was about 35,000, the biggest it’s ever been.”  Dauria wrote her doctoral dissertation on the rise and decline of manufacturing in Amsterdam.

The Progress Exposition was organized by the Board of Trade, predecessor of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.  The event was held from September 11th through the 19th, 1925 at Ross’ Flats in the East End, next to the railroad tracks.  Admission was 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children.

According to the Schenectady Gazette of that day, a windmill was erected as the entrance to a series of huge tents that contained more than a hundred booths where manufacturers and businessmen showed their wares.  One “mammoth tent” was dedicated to the display of automobiles.  Socony (Standard Oil of New York) displayed a gasoline pump.

A Main Street parade preceded opening night.  The Gazette reported: “All the industrial concerns and stores in this city have been invited to have their old employees in point of service participate in the parade, as the parade will feature those who have had part in the building up of Amsterdam.” 

Schenectady General Electric furnished floodlights.  “The whole city is in gala attire, with the merchants making displays of their flags on the poles along the curbs,” reported the Gazette.

State Senator William T. Byrne of Albany gave a speech.  There was a fashion show, baby contest and a pet show.  A billboard advertised music and entertainment daily.

The Walter Elwood Museum in Amsterdam has a book of pictures of the Progress Exposition taken by photographer Emil Zillgitt for the Board of Trade.  The Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce donated the book to the museum in 1982.  Museum director Ann Thane would like to know more about Zillgitt.  His photography studio was at 13-15 East Main Street and he is listed in city directories through the early 1950s when he died.  He and his wife Eunice lived at 118 Grand Street. 

One picture shows the booth of real estate agent Monroe Gray who is selling suburban lots at Tribes Hill Heights.  “A lot means a home and a home means a lot,” states a poster.  Gray is seated at his booth, which is next to Quist Lumber, smartly dressed in a three-piece suit with well-shined shoes, holding what may be a rolled up blueprint.  Another poster promises: “Invest now and double your money at Tribes Hill Heights.”  Gray has blueprints of the lots and pictures of homes stacked on a table underneath an American flag.  He has a promotional item: a calendar depicting an elegant woman.

The carpet mills—Mohawk and Stephen Sanford & Sons--had booths in the Exposition, as did other manufacturers. 

Main Street merchant Holzheimer & Shaul occupied several booths that look like store window displays.  A cardboard cutout of a young girl is behind a new Hoover vacuum cleaner, offered with “unusually easy terms.”  A female mannequin wearing an apron sits amid a display of Glenwood gas and wood stoves.  One of the firm’s principals, P. Dater Shaul, is pictured at a planning session for the Exposition.  To tout the city’s role in making rugs, Holzheimer’s put a Sanford carpet on the sidewalk in front of its East Main Street store during the Exposition.

In Amsterdam since 1882, Fitzgerald’s Bottling Works offered ginger ale for five cents a bottle at its booth.  “The safest drinks--kills disease germs,” states an advertising poster.

Sign-up for the Cudmore email "Blast" sent early each Saturday, keep up with The Mohawk Valley History Schedule

 [email protected]

The first Weekend in June

A Walking Tour, Friends of North Chuctanunda Incorporated

Saturday, June 3, 2023 at 9:30 am

"Clock Tower Building" Amsterdam. An elevator to top floor to enjoy the view. Down to third floor reception Room for coffee & a treat. We are celebrating National Trails Day. We have invited trail spokespeople from around the area to tell about their pathways. The Friends will display maps showing where trails are complete and others future construction.(Bob will have more information)

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, May 22, 2023

52 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:57AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

The Historians Sunday Update at 8:52AM 

make (something) more modern or up to date.

The Progress Exposition was organized by the Board of Trade, predecessor of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.  The event was held from September 11th through the 19th, 1925 at Ross’ Flats in the East End, next to the railroad tracks.  Admission was 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children.

Bustling Amsterdam

Bustling Amsterdam sparkled in 1925 expo

By Bob Cudmore

        America was prospering in 1925 and local businesses staged Amsterdam’s Progress Exposition and Auto Show that year to show off that prosperity. 

“In the twenties, that was the heyday here,” said anthropologist Susan Dauria.  “The population was about 35,000, the biggest it’s ever been.”  Dauria wrote her doctoral dissertation on the rise and decline of manufacturing in Amsterdam.

The Progress Exposition was organized by the Board of Trade, predecessor of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.  The event was held from September 11th through the 19th, 1925 at Ross’ Flats in the East End, next to the railroad tracks.  Admission was 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children.

According to the Schenectady Gazette of that day, a windmill was erected as the entrance to a series of huge tents that contained more than a hundred booths where manufacturers and businessmen showed their wares.  One “mammoth tent” was dedicated to the display of automobiles.  Socony (Standard Oil of New York) displayed a gasoline pump.

A Main Street parade preceded opening night.  The Gazette reported: “All the industrial concerns and stores in this city have been invited to have their old employees in point of service participate in the parade, as the parade will feature those who have had part in the building up of Amsterdam.” 

Schenectady General Electric furnished floodlights.  “The whole city is in gala attire, with the merchants making displays of their flags on the poles along the curbs,” reported the Gazette.

State Senator William T. Byrne of Albany gave a speech.  There was a fashion show, baby contest and a pet show.  A billboard advertised music and entertainment daily.

The Walter Elwood Museum in Amsterdam has a book of pictures of the Progress Exposition taken by photographer Emil Zillgitt for the Board of Trade.  The Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce donated the book to the museum in 1982.  Museum director Ann Thane would like to know more about Zillgitt.  His photography studio was at 13-15 East Main Street and he is listed in city directories through the early 1950s when he died.  He and his wife Eunice lived at 118 Grand Street. 

One picture shows the booth of real estate agent Monroe Gray who is selling suburban lots at Tribes Hill Heights.  “A lot means a home and a home means a lot,” states a poster.  Gray is seated at his booth, which is next to Quist Lumber, smartly dressed in a three-piece suit with well-shined shoes, holding what may be a rolled up blueprint.  Another poster promises: “Invest now and double your money at Tribes Hill Heights.”  Gray has blueprints of the lots and pictures of homes stacked on a table underneath an American flag.  He has a promotional item: a calendar depicting an elegant woman.

The carpet mills—Mohawk and Stephen Sanford & Sons--had booths in the Exposition, as did other manufacturers. 

Main Street merchant Holzheimer & Shaul occupied several booths that look like store window displays.  A cardboard cutout of a young girl is behind a new Hoover vacuum cleaner, offered with “unusually easy terms.”  A female mannequin wearing an apron sits amid a display of Glenwood gas and wood stoves.  One of the firm’s principals, P. Dater Shaul, is pictured at a planning session for the Exposition.  To tout the city’s role in making rugs, Holzheimer’s put a Sanford carpet on the sidewalk in front of its East Main Street store during the Exposition.

In Amsterdam since 1882, Fitzgerald’s Bottling Works offered ginger ale for five cents a bottle at its booth.  “The safest drinks--kills disease germs,” states an advertising poster.

Monday, May 22, 2023-The story behind the story-Amsterdam’s 1925 Progress Exposition(Podcast 6 minutes)

Tuesday, May 23, 2023-Fort Plain’s Luxuray made women’s panties. 

Wednesday, May 24, 2023- Episode 95, January 24, 2016- Jewelry designer and historian Aja Raden with an account of how jewels have affected the course of history.  Raden is author of “Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession and How Desire Shapes the World.”

Thursday, May 25, 2023-Route 5-History on the highway.

Friday, May 26, 2023-Episode 476-Journalist Paul Kix documents how the 1963 desegregation campaign in Birmingham Alabama changed race relations in America.  Martin Luther King, Jr., was imprisoned and wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  Kix’s book is titled You Have to Be Prepared to Die before You Can Begin to Live.

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Historians Weekend Extra "The Cannon at Fairview Cemetery"

By Bob Cudmore

   A cannon that marks the veterans’ plot at Amsterdam’s Fairview Cemetery was forged during the Civil War.

   City historian Robert H. von Hasseln researched the gun’s history, “It was born in 1864 in the fires of the cast iron forges of Builders Foundry in Providence, Rhode Island.”   

   It was the 183rd eleven inch Dahlgren Shell Gun manufactured for the United States Navy.  These guns were named for their inventor, Rear Admiral John Dahlgren.

   Shell guns were developed just before the Civil War.  They fired spherical shells filled with explosives that could tear “jagged holes” in wooden ships as well as igniting “powder, shells, combustibles, and the like.” 

   Gun number 183 appeared in federal records at the Mare Island Naval Yard near San Francisco in 1866.  It is not known if the gun had been mounted on any ship prior to 1877 when number 183 was among about fifty Dahlgren guns converted into eight inch rifles. 

   Von Hasseln wrote, “It became clear the best way to defeat armored vessels was a pointed rifled projectile (think giant rifle bullet): spinning on its longitudinal axis like a well-thrown football.”  The conversion of number 183 was probably done at the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, New York.

   Visible on the gun is this notation “P; EJH: 1877” which Von Hasseln said meant the gun was proved (test fired), with initials of the federal inspector and date.  Also on the piece you can read: “8 Inch Rifle; 17,240 lbs; No. 13.”  This indicates caliber and type, weight of tube alone and a new registry number. 

   The cannonballs stacked next to the Fairview gun are eleven inch spherical shells that the piece originally fired, not the conical rifle shells it fired after conversion.

   Gun 183-13 saw service around the world on the USS Monongahela, Pensacola and Essex.  It was later used for training and tests, then stored at the Washington Navy Yard.  Some converted eleven inch shell guns were used on ships guarding the East Coast in the Spanish American War.

Click here for The Story Behind the Story with more information about "The Cannon"

      Von Hasseln wrote that most of the original eleven inch shell guns were scrapped, “Others became pier-side and traffic bollards, a few museum displays, and one – an everlasting memorial to Amsterdam veterans.”

   Fairview Cemetery was established off Steadwell Avenue in Amsterdam’s west end in 1899.  Members of the E. S. Young Post 33 of the Grand Army of the Republic, an association of Union Civil War veterans, decided to create a veterans’ plot at Fairview as they had at Green Hill Cemetery.

   The Reverend Putnam Cady of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church on Guy Park Avenue gave a talk about his world travels to raise funds to ship and mount the gun.  The cannon was delivered and installed in July 1906.

   At the dedication, Reverend Cady said: “It was ever ready to obey the gunner’s will, and with its brazen throat commands respect for the stars and stripes that floated above it. Now that its active usefulness is past what better place could it occupy than this where sleep the men who have fought and stacked their arms for the last time?” 

   The first piece of property in the New World purchased by the Cudmore family, immigrants from the United Kingdom, was a cemetery plot at Fairview.

   My grandmother Elizabeth Copp Cudmore, 56, was buried there at Christmas time in 1934.  Her husband Harry lived another 22 years and also was buried at Fairview, as were other family members including my aunts, one uncle, my parents and sister.  When I was a child we visited the cemetery in the summer and had picnics among the tombstones.

Schedule the Date for A Walking Tour, Friends of North Chuctanunda Incorporated

Saturday, June 3, 2023 at 9:30 am

"Clock Tower Building" Amsterdam. An elevator to top floor to enjoy the view. Down to third floor reception Room for coffee & a treat. We are celebrating National Trails Day. We have invited trail spokespeople from around the area to tell about their pathways. The Friends will display maps showing where trails are complete and others future construction.(Bob will have more information over the next few days)

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, May 21, 2023

53 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:10AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

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Scroll Down for a Saturday Extra "The Cannon at Fairview Cemetery"

Print Story and The Story Behind the Story

  A cannon that marks the veterans’ plot at Amsterdam’s Fairview Cemetery was forged during the Civil War.

Phyllis Chapman of Friends of the Bennington Battlefield describes the battle and its impact on the Battle of Saratoga.

https://townofhoosick.org/benningtonbattlefield.php?content=benningtonbattlefield

The Battle of Bennington preceded the 1777 Battle of Saratoga during the American Revolution.  It was fought in the hamlet of Walloomsac in the Town of Hoosick New York on August 16 1777—about ten miles from Bennington, Vermont.  

Saturday May 20, 2023-From the Archives- May 25, 2018-Historians Episode 216- Rachel Slade is author of “Into the Raging Sea: 33 Mariners, One Megastorm and the Sinking of El Faro.”  The container ship sank and all on board died during Hurricane Joaquin in the Atlantic in 2015.

The cannon at Fairview Cemetery

By Bob Cudmore

   A cannon that marks the veterans’ plot at Amsterdam’s Fairview Cemetery was forged during the Civil War.

   City historian Robert H. von Hasseln researched the gun’s history, “It was born in 1864 in the fires of the cast iron forges of Builders Foundry in Providence, Rhode Island.”   

   It was the 183rd eleven inch Dahlgren Shell Gun manufactured for the United States Navy.  These guns were named for their inventor, Rear Admiral John Dahlgren.

   Shell guns were developed just before the Civil War.  They fired spherical shells filled with explosives that could tear “jagged holes” in wooden ships as well as igniting “powder, shells, combustibles, and the like.” 

   Gun number 183 appeared in federal records at the Mare Island Naval Yard near San Francisco in 1866.  It is not known if the gun had been mounted on any ship prior to 1877 when number 183 was among about fifty Dahlgren guns converted into eight inch rifles. 

   Von Hasseln wrote, “It became clear the best way to defeat armored vessels was a pointed rifled projectile (think giant rifle bullet): spinning on its longitudinal axis like a well-thrown football.”  The conversion of number 183 was probably done at the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, New York.

   Visible on the gun is this notation “P; EJH: 1877” which Von Hasseln said meant the gun was proved (test fired), with initials of the federal inspector and date.  Also on the piece you can read: “8 Inch Rifle; 17,240 lbs; No. 13.”  This indicates caliber and type, weight of tube alone and a new registry number. 

   The cannonballs stacked next to the Fairview gun are eleven inch spherical shells that the piece originally fired, not the conical rifle shells it fired after conversion.

   Gun 183-13 saw service around the world on the USS Monongahela, Pensacola and Essex.  It was later used for training and tests, then stored at the Washington Navy Yard.  Some converted eleven inch shell guns were used on ships guarding the East Coast in the Spanish American War.

Listen here for The Story Behind the Story "The Cannon"

      Von Hasseln wrote that most of the original eleven inch shell guns were scrapped, “Others became pier-side and traffic bollards, a few museum displays, and one – an everlasting memorial to Amsterdam veterans.”

   Fairview Cemetery was established off Steadwell Avenue in Amsterdam’s west end in 1899.  Members of the E. S. Young Post 33 of the Grand Army of the Republic, an association of Union Civil War veterans, decided to create a veterans’ plot at Fairview as they had at Green Hill Cemetery.

   The Reverend Putnam Cady of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church on Guy Park Avenue gave a talk about his world travels to raise funds to ship and mount the gun.  The cannon was delivered and installed in July 1906.

   At the dedication, Reverend Cady said: “It was ever ready to obey the gunner’s will, and with its brazen throat commands respect for the stars and stripes that floated above it. Now that its active usefulness is past what better place could it occupy than this where sleep the men who have fought and stacked their arms for the last time?” 

   The first piece of property in the New World purchased by the Cudmore family, immigrants from the United Kingdom, was a cemetery plot at Fairview.

   My grandmother Elizabeth Copp Cudmore, 56, was buried there at Christmas time in 1934.  Her husband Harry lived another 22 years and also was buried at Fairview, as were other family members including my aunts, one uncle, my parents and sister.  When I was a child we visited the cemetery in the summer and had picnics among the tombstones.

Schedule the Date

A Walking Tour

Friends of North Chuctanunda Incorporated

Saturday, June 3, 2023 at 9:30 am

"Clock Tower Building" Amsterdam. An elevator to top floor to enjoy the view. Down to third floor reception Room for coffee & a treat. We are celebrating National Trails Day. We have invited trail spokespeople from around the area to tell about their pathways. The Friends will display maps showing where trails are complete and others future construction.(Bob will have more information over the next two weeks)

Tomorrow, Sunday, May 21, 2023- Focus on History

Amsterdam’s 1925 Progress Exposition

The Progress Exposition was organized by the Board of Trade, predecessor of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. 

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, May 20, 2023

55 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:45AM

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/