The Historians

In production on The Historians

Episode 468-Alan Maddaus is author of The Prestons of East Street, the Story of a 19th century American Family. More information next week.

The Historians Podcast Go Fund Me 2023 needs your partnership in History

On-Line or the U.S. Mail, Use this Go Fund Me Link The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore

Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Charles Morgan Evans is author of Helicopter Heroine--Valerie Andre, Surgeon, Rescue Pilot and Her Courage Under Fire.  Andre piloted primitive helicopters to rescue wounded soldiers in the 1950s for the French army in Indochina.  She became the first woman in the French military to be promoted to General.

Saturday March 25

Historian Peter Betz

Sunday, March 26

We’ll call the baby Harry

Bob Cudmore every weekend in The Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder

One of Albert and Katie’s daughters, Paula Sikora Martin, wrote down memories of the birth of her youngest brother in 1928. 

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“I recall that the church at Christmas time was particularly beautiful,” Sidlauscus wrote.  “At midnight Mass, all main lights were turned off, and a series of smaller lights turned on.  These lights were on the ceiling of the church, and ran the length of each of the three aisles, from the entrance to the altar. 

The Historians Podcast Go Fund Me for 2023. This weekend, Sunday, March 26, 2023 we'll name the baby Henry from The Daily Gazette.

Go Fund Me Link The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  or U.S. Mail. Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Memories of St. Casimir’s

By Bob Cudmore

The pending closure of St. Casimir’s Church has brought back memories for Amsterdam native Richard Sidlauscus.  The historically Lithuanian church on East Main Street in Amsterdam is to close in May.

A second generation American of Lithuanian descent, Sidlauscus now lives in Connecticut and has not lived in Amsterdam in 42 years.  He has not been to Mass at St. Casimir’s in more than 15 years. 

“I finally came to realize that whenever St. Casimir’s is mentioned, it evokes memories of a time, place, people and events that were a major part of my youth,” Sidlauscus wrote.

Sidlauscus said that in his youth Lithuanian was spoken regularly on East Main Street from Schuyler Street to the city line.  He remembers the distinctive lilt of Lithuanian, beginning low and ending at a higher pitch.  There were businesses with names like Maldutis Bakery, Pakenas Cleaners, and Piliponis Grocery.

“If you were Lithuanian in the Amsterdam I grew up in, St. Casimir’s was the center of your religious and, to a great degree, your family social life,” Sidlauscus wrote.  “You went to Mass there; you attended religious instructions in the lower level of the church; you were married there; your children were baptized there.  Your relatives were buried in St. Casimir’s Cemetery.  You went to church picnics at the grove near the cemetery off Widow Susan Road.  You went to family dinners, club banquets, wedding receptions and showers at the American Lithuanian Club on Liberty Street.”

In the summer, the Sidlauscus family usually attended the 8 a.m. service so they could go on picnics to Wells or Great Sacandaga Lake.  The rest of the year, the family went to Mass at 9 a.m. as religious instructions followed in the school. 

The Mass was in Latin in those days but the gospel was read in English and Lithuanian.  Everyone stood for what seemed forever, Sidlauscus said, when the Passion was read as the Palm Sunday gospel.   

“I recall that the church at Christmas time was particularly beautiful,” Sidlauscus wrote.  “At midnight Mass, all main lights were turned off, and a series of smaller lights turned on.  These lights were on the ceiling of the church, and ran the length of each of the three aisles, from the entrance to the altar.  There were also lights over the altar.  With just these lights and candles lit, the church was magical.”

Sidlauscus said his father used to say you could get drunk by breathing in the back of the church among all the standing worshippers who came to midnight Mass directly from their Christmas Eve festivities.

Sidlauscus recalls when the men of the Holy Name Society would march down the aisle to take their places for the annual communion breakfast, wearing suits and

Emil Suda of Amsterdam enjoyed visiting Pingitore’s Shoe Store on East Main Street when he was a child. The proprietors kept toys on the floor to entertain children.  Suda said Pingitore’s had a toy dump truck and a silver robot with a flashing light on its head. 

Friday, March 24, 2023-Episode 467-Charles Morgan Evans is author of Helicopter Heroine--Valerie Andre, Surgeon, Rescue Pilot and Her Courage Under Fire.  Andre piloted primitive helicopters to rescue wounded soldiers in the 1950s for the French army in Indochina.  She became the first woman in the French military to be promoted to General.

Dr. Mahvash M. Majeed "Welcome to the Village" (All the Episodes) on Buzzsprout  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1648825

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, March 23, 2023

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Caroga committee to explore short-term rental regulations

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Dr. Mahvash M. Majeed

Welcome to the Village (All the Episodes) Buzzsprout  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1648825

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Edmund Wilson at the Mohawk Encampment-Pastries helped with popularity

Edmund Wilson and the Mohawks

By Bob Cudmore 

Four months after the Mohawk Indian encampment began on farmland off Route 5-S adjacent to the Schoharie Creek in 1957, world-renowned man of letters Edmund Wilson paid a visit to Chief Standing Arrow and his followers.

Wilson wrote about the October encounter in his 1959 book, “Apologies to the Iroquois.”   Amsterdam native Tom Pikul provided this interesting lead on the story of the encampment.

Wilson found that Standing Arrow was part of an Iroquois nationalist movement with adherents at the Onondaga reservation in the Syracuse area and at reservations in northern New York and Canada.  In other chapters of the book Wilson describes meetings with other Indian nationalists.

Descended from an Upstate New York family named Talcott, Wilson maintained a summer home at Talcottville, north of Utica in Lewis County between the Adirondacks and Tug Hill Plateau. 

Before going to the Mohawk encampment, Wilson met with reporters from the Recorder in Amsterdam, apparently including historian Hugh Donlon.  Wilson also gathered information from the county archivist.

When Wilson arrived, the Chief was away and his family not too willing to communicate.  On a second visit, Wilson knocked at the door and no one came to answer it.  When the author was getting back in his car, Standing Arrow appeared in the doorway and waved to him. 

Wilson said, “It was a characteristic of an Indian that, not being up and dressed, he should not shout that he would be out in a minute but should wait until he could present himself with dignity.”

Inside, the hut was “small but not ill-kept.”  There was a landscape of a lake hanging on the wall, along with a feathered headdress and a rattle made from the shell of a snapping turtle.  Wilson said Standing Arrow, a former chief from the St. Regis Reservation also known as Frank Johnson, was a charismatic figure.   

Wilson wrote, “A Mohawk who disapproved of Standing Arrow told me that his eloquence in English – of which his command was imperfect – was nothing to his eloquence in Mohawk.”

Although Wilson had heard unfavorable things about Standing Arrow, he was “won over” by the Chief saying, “He appealed to the imagination.”  Wilson said Standing Arrow’s features reminded him of the young Napoleon, even though he had “a slight cast in one eye.

“He had also, as I could see, some of the qualities of the Mussolinian spellbinder,” wrote Wilson.

Wilson learned that some of the men in the settlement were high steel workers who had labored that year on the Thruway Bridge over the Schoharie Creek.  Most of them had gone back to Brooklyn after the summer construction season.

The Mohawks are excellent working on tall construction projects--walking on a narrow beam is not difficult for them.  Wilson’s book includes “A Study of the Mohawks in High Steel” written by Joseph Mitchell in 1949, describing the lives led by Mohawks in New York City. 

Standing Arrow had put a sign on Route 5-S outside the encampment that said Indian Village.  During the previous summer, the Indians sold souvenirs to tourists.

In the conversation with Wilson, Standing Arrow produced a document from American attorney E.A. Everett in 1924 backing the Chief’s claim that the Mohawks still owned the land around the Schoharie Creek.  Everett credited the Iroquois Confederacy with creating the only pre-European government in America.

The Schoharie Creek encampment was gone by the summer of 1958.  Eviction orders were served following court action in March.  Some of the Mohawk huts were burned.   The Mohawks were offered land in the town of Fulton in Schoharie County but if there was a settlement there, apparently it was short lived.

Wednesday, March 22, 2023-From the Archives- August 12, 2022-Episode 435-Susanne Dunlap discusses her book The Portraitist, a novel based on the life of 18th century French artist Adélaïde Labilleo-Guiard whose life went on amid the changes and terror of the French Revolution.

With a beautiful rival who’s better connected and better trained than she is, Adélaïde faces an uphill battle. Her love affair with her young instructor in oil painting gives rise to suspicions that he touches up her work, and her decision to make much-needed money by executing erotic pastels threatens to create as many problems as it solves. 

Memories of St. Casimir’s in Amsterdam

Thursday, March 23, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette

Friday, March 24, 2023-Episode 467-Charles Morgan Evans is author of Helicopter Heroine--Valerie Andre, Surgeon, Rescue Pilot and Her Courage Under Fire.  Andre piloted primitive helicopters to rescue wounded soldiers in the 1950s for the French army in Indochina.  She became the first woman in the French military to be promoted to General.

The Historians Podcast Go Fund Me for 2023. This coming Sunday, March 26, 2023 we'll name the baby Henry from The Daily Gazette. Go Fund Me Link The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  or U.S. Mail. Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

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Dr. Mahvash M. Majeed "Welcome to the Village" (All the Episodes) on Buzzsprout  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1648825

Wednesday, March 22, 2023-From the Archives- August 12, 2022-Episode 435-Susanne Dunlap discusses her book The Portraitist, a novel based on the life of 18th century French artist Adélaïde Labilleo-Guiard whose life went on amid the changes and terror of the French Revolution.

Memories of St. Casimir’s in Amsterdam

Thursday, March 23, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette

The pending closure of St. Casimir’s Church has brought back memories for Amsterdam native Richard Sidlauscus.  The historically Lithuanian church on East Main Street in Amsterdam is to close in May.

Friday, March 24, 2023-Episode 467-Charles Morgan Evans is author of Helicopter Heroine--Valerie Andre, Surgeon, Rescue Pilot and Her Courage Under Fire.  Andre piloted primitive helicopters to rescue wounded soldiers in the 1950s for the French army in Indochina.  She became the first woman in the French military to be promoted to General.

The Historians Podcast Go Fund Me for 2023. This coming Sunday, March 26, 2023 we'll name the baby Henry from The Daily Gazette. Go Fund Me Link The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  or U.S. Mail. Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, March 22, 2023

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Get to the Point

Are all the websites you visit, too busy?

The Historians on one page, no video, no pop-ups and a good story.

Monday, March 20, 2023

Story behind the story Wilson family

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Edmund Wilson at the Mohawk Encampment-Pastries helped with popularity

Four months after the Mohawk Indian encampment began on farmland off Route 5-S adjacent to the Schoharie Creek in 1957, world-renowned man of letters Edmund Wilson paid a visit to Chief Standing Arrow and his followers.

Wednesday, March 22, 2023-From the Archives- August 12, 2022-Episode 435-Susanne Dunlap discusses her book The Portraitist, a novel based on the life of 18th century French artist Adélaïde Labilleo-Guiard whose life went on amid the changes and terror of the French Revolution.

With a beautiful rival who’s better connected and better trained than she is, Adélaïde faces an uphill battle. Her love affair with her young instructor in oil painting gives rise to suspicions that he touches up her work, and her decision to make much-needed money by executing erotic pastels threatens to create as many problems as it solves. 

Memories of St. Casimir’s in Amsterdam

Thursday, March 23, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette

Friday, March 24, 2023-Episode 467-Charles Morgan Evans is author of Helicopter Heroine--Valerie Andre, Surgeon, Rescue Pilot and Her Courage Under Fire.  Andre piloted primitive helicopters to rescue wounded soldiers in the 1950s for the French army in Indochina.  She became the first woman in the French military to be promoted to General.

The Historians Podcast Go Fund Me for 2023. This coming Sunday, March 26, 2023 we'll name the baby Henry from The Daily Gazette. Go Fund Me Link The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  or U.S. Mail. Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Amsterdam’s remarkable Wilson family

By Bob Cudmore

   Benjamin Wilson responded with more information after reading the recent column describing his Amsterdam ancestors. 

   Wilson is retired chairman of the prestigious Washington, D.C., law firm of Beveridge & Diamond.  A Harvard Law School alumnus, he was an environmental litigator and advocate for diversity and inclusion.

   Wilson is the son of the late Harrison Wilson, Junior, a basketball standout at Amsterdam High School in the early 1940s.  Harrison Junior went on to become president of Norfolk State University in Virginia in 1975 and led that historically black institution until his retirement in 1997.  He died in 2019 at age 94.

   Ben Wilson said when he was a child most summers his family in Virginia visited his Amsterdam grandparents, Harrison Senior and Marguerite Wilson, at their home on Cedar Street. 

   Harrison Senior and Marguerite raised eight children, four male and four female, all born in Amsterdam and now all deceased.  They were, from eldest to youngest, Martha Ellen Wilson Marshall, Edward Wilson, Margaret C. Wilson, Mary Alida Wilson, Harrison Benjamin Wilson, Jr., Virginia Wilson Howard, Willis Thomas Wilson and Albert John Wilson.

   Marguerite and Harrison Senior emphasized education in raising their family.  Marguerite, formerly a school teacher in Kentucky, was named Mother of the Year in a national competition. 

   Martha, the eldest Amsterdam Wilson sibling, won the girls’ acting award when she graduated high school in 1931.  She was a classmate of Isadore Demsky who became the movie actor Kirk Douglas.  Martha became a nurse in El Paso, Texas, and her mother Marguerite died in El Paso in 1960.

   The youngest Amsterdam Wilson sibling, Albert, died last year.  He was an honors student and athlete at Lynch High School and Indiana University.  He became a real estate attorney, and was a pioneer in corporate social responsibility.  Ben Wilson said, “He helped develop corporate America’s response to investment in South Africa in the late 1980s and 1990s.”

   Ben Wilson remembers visiting the Amsterdam parking lot on Federal Street which the Wilsons operated near, he said, a diner with great hamburgers and the police station, which had a soda machine. 

   Ben Wilson said, “We visited my grandfather Harrison Benjamin Wilson, Sr. at the parking lot, and my father and uncles would help my grandfather at the parking lot.  My grandfather worked that lot every day until his mid-eighties.  He died in 1982 ar age 93.

   “We engaged in typical family activities, visiting the museum in Albany, the World’s Fair in New York City and going to Caroga Lake and Lake George.

   “I had an interest in history and the year before I went away to school my parents took me to General Herkimer’s home and the area homes of Sir William Johnson.  This was helpful when I had to read “Drums Along the Mohawk” for English class.  My teacher could not believe I had actually been to several sites described in the novel.”

   Ben’s brother the late Harrison Wilson III was the father of National Football League quarterback Russell Wilson, now with the Denver Broncos.

  In 2016 Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Junior, who hosts a public television genealogy program, interviewed Russell at a public event called the Richmond Forum.

   Gates found that Harrison Wilson, Senior, came to Amsterdam from Kentucky in 1920 in part because he had an older brother Albert in Amsterdam.  Gates said Harrison Senior owned property in Kentucky.  His father had been enslaved and fought with the Colored Troops of the Union army in the Civil War.

   Ben Harrison’s sister April Wilson Woodard is a TV journalist known for her work as a correspondent on the newsmagazine Inside Edition.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, March 20, 2023

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Harrison Senior and Marguerite raised eight children, four male and four female, all born in Amsterdam and now all deceased.  They were, from eldest to youngest, Martha Ellen Wilson Marshall, Edward Wilson, Margaret C. Wilson, Mary Alida Wilson, Harrison Benjamin Wilson, Jr., Virginia Wilson Howard, Willis Thomas Wilson and Albert John Wilson.

The Historians Podcast Go Fund Me for 2023. This coming Sunday, March 26, 2023 we'll name the baby Henry from The Daily Gazette. Go Fund Me Link The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  or U.S. Mail. Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Amsterdam’s remarkable Wilson family

By Bob Cudmore

   Benjamin Wilson responded with more information after reading the recent column describing his Amsterdam ancestors. 

   Wilson is retired chairman of the prestigious Washington, D.C., law firm of Beveridge & Diamond.  A Harvard Law School alumnus, he was an environmental litigator and advocate for diversity and inclusion.

   Wilson is the son of the late Harrison Wilson, Junior, a basketball standout at Amsterdam High School in the early 1940s.  Harrison Junior went on to become president of Norfolk State University in Virginia in 1975 and led that historically black institution until his retirement in 1997.  He died in 2019 at age 94.

   Ben Wilson said when he was a child most summers his family in Virginia visited his Amsterdam grandparents, Harrison Senior and Marguerite Wilson, at their home on Cedar Street. 

   Harrison Senior and Marguerite raised eight children, four male and four female, all born in Amsterdam and now all deceased.  They were, from eldest to youngest, Martha Ellen Wilson Marshall, Edward Wilson, Margaret C. Wilson, Mary Alida Wilson, Harrison Benjamin Wilson, Jr., Virginia Wilson Howard, Willis Thomas Wilson and Albert John Wilson.

   Marguerite and Harrison Senior emphasized education in raising their family.  Marguerite, formerly a school teacher in Kentucky, was named Mother of the Year in a national competition. 

   Martha, the eldest Amsterdam Wilson sibling, won the girls’ acting award when she graduated high school in 1931.  She was a classmate of Isadore Demsky who became the movie actor Kirk Douglas.  Martha became a nurse in El Paso, Texas, and her mother Marguerite died in El Paso in 1960.

   The youngest Amsterdam Wilson sibling, Albert, died last year.  He was an honors student and athlete at Lynch High School and Indiana University.  He became a real estate attorney, and was a pioneer in corporate social responsibility.  Ben Wilson said, “He helped develop corporate America’s response to investment in South Africa in the late 1980s and 1990s.”

   Ben Wilson remembers visiting the Amsterdam parking lot on Federal Street which the Wilsons operated near, he said, a diner with great hamburgers and the police station, which had a soda machine. 

   Ben Wilson said, “We visited my grandfather Harrison Benjamin Wilson, Sr. at the parking lot, and my father and uncles would help my grandfather at the parking lot.  My grandfather worked that lot every day until his mid-eighties.  He died in 1982 ar age 93.

   “We engaged in typical family activities, visiting the museum in Albany, the World’s Fair in New York City and going to Caroga Lake and Lake George.

   “I had an interest in history and the year before I went away to school my parents took me to General Herkimer’s home and the area homes of Sir William Johnson.  This was helpful when I had to read “Drums Along the Mohawk” for English class.  My teacher could not believe I had actually been to several sites described in the novel.”

   Ben’s brother the late Harrison Wilson III was the father of National Football League quarterback Russell Wilson, now with the Denver Broncos.

  In 2016 Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Junior, who hosts a public television genealogy program, interviewed Russell at a public event called the Richmond Forum.

   Gates found that Harrison Wilson, Senior, came to Amsterdam from Kentucky in 1920 in part because he had an older brother Albert in Amsterdam.  Gates said Harrison Senior owned property in Kentucky.  His father had been enslaved and fought with the Colored Troops of the Union army in the Civil War.

   Ben Harrison’s sister April Wilson Woodard is a TV journalist known for her work as a correspondent on the newsmagazine Inside Edition.

Monday, March 20, 2023-Story behind the story Wilson family

"High Steel"

Tuesday, March 21, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Edmund Wilson at the Mohawk Encampment-Pastries helped with popularity

Wednesday, March 22, 2023-From the Archives- August 12, 2022-Episode 435-Susanne Dunlap discusses her book The Portraitist, a novel based on the life of 18th century French artist Adélaïde Labilleo-Guiard whose life went on amid the changes and terror of the French Revolution.

With a beautiful rival who’s better connected and better trained than she is, Adélaïde faces an uphill battle. Her love affair with her young instructor in oil painting gives rise to suspicions that he touches up her work, and her decision to make much-needed money by executing erotic pastels threatens to create as many problems as it solves. 

Memories of St. Casimir’s in Amsterdam

Thursday, March 23, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette

Friday, March 24, 2023-Episode 467-Charles Morgan Evans is author of Helicopter Heroine--Valerie Andre, Surgeon, Rescue Pilot and Her Courage Under Fire.  Andre piloted primitive helicopters to rescue wounded soldiers in the 1950s for the French army in Indochina.  She became the first woman in the French military to be promoted to General.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, March 19, 2023

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

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The Historians Podcast Go Fund Me for 2023. Go Fund Me Link The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore  or U.S. Mail. Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. Working to Episode #500 later this year.

Saturday March 18, 2023-New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan with the story of Jimmy McManus

On News Stands today in The Gazette, Paper-Paper and e-edition

Bob Cudmore "Focus on History"...we'll name the baby Henry

Tomorrow, the full print story about Amsterdam’s Wilson family here on The Historians

Wilson is retired chairman of the prestigious Washington, D.C., law firm of Beveridge & Diamond. 

Kate Fagan is author of HOOP MUSES-An Insider’s Guide to Pop Culture and the (Women’s) Game an Adventure through Basketball History. Fagan is a native of Schenectady. She writes for Sports Illustrated.

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