In 1935 the Recorder reported that Florence and her colleague Imogene Cook directed students in a play called “A Better Plan.”  Instead of playing Halloween pranks on people, the characters in the play gave a sick child a “grand surprise on Halloween.”

Florence Collins, Reid Hill’s favorite teacher

By Bob Cudmore

   Florence Collins lived most of her life in the house where she grew up on Amsterdam’s Pulaski Street in the then predominately Polish enclave called Reid Hill. 

   Born in 1911, her parents were Anthony and Pelagia Lulkowska Dabrowski.  They had come to America from Torun, Poland, birthplace of Copernicus.  Her given first name was long and Polish and, according to her son’s eulogy, she decided to call herself “Florence” because of a neighbor woman who had that name.

   A graduate of Amsterdam High, Florence earned her teaching certificate at Oneonta Normal School. 

   She served forty years as a fourth and fifth grade teacher in her Amsterdam neighborhood’s public school, Vrooman Avenue Elementary.

   In 1935 the Recorder reported that Florence and her colleague Imogene Cook directed students in a play called “A Better Plan.”  Instead of playing Halloween pranks on people, the characters in the play gave a sick child a “grand surprise on Halloween.”

   Florence’s father died in 1937.  In 1939 she married Henry Paierski of Schenectady, who changed his last name to Page.  Henry took ill and died in 1943.  He had been in the engineering department at the Alco locomotive plant in Schenectady.

   Florence married her second husband, postal worker Andrew Collins, in 1951.  Their son David became a pediatric anesthesiologist.

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   Florence Collins was an inspiring teacher according to students and fellow educators.  Teaching reading was one of her specialties.  Collins excelled at helping young students learn to read and also volunteered to help immigrants learn to speak and read English.

   Sometimes when she walked home from school, she was accompanied by an honor guard of neighborhood students.

   One high point in her career was in 1955 when she and her class of fifth graders produced two programs on the Eskimos of Alaska that aired live on WRGB television. 

   Sheldon Jackson, a native of Minaville south of Amsterdam, was a missionary who had a major impact on Alaska’s natives, so the television project had a local history aspect.  As one of her students that year, I wore a parka and carried a small harpoon on television. 

   Legendary Amsterdam High basketball coach John A. Varsoke was principal at Vrooman Avenue in 1968 and spoke approvingly of Collins’s work.  

   “She never hesitates to cooperate and lend herself to difficult situations,” Varsoke wrote in a performance appraisal. “Her patience and concern for individual differences are a few of her attributes.

   For her part she was proud that Tim Kolojay and Tom Urbelis, members of Varsoke’s Fabulous Five high school basketball team in the 1962-63 season, were her students.

   Collins retired in 1976.  Her mother died in 1984.  Her husband died in 1999.  

   When Collins moved into the Sarah Jane Sanford Home on Guy Park Avenue in 2004, administrator Jeanne So remembered “an agile 92-year old” who was “twirling in the hallway outside her bedroom door, wearing a flowing floor-length skirt.”

   “I have never forgotten the way you had of instilling into young minds that we were all special,” wrote her 1934 fourth grade student Stanley Goscinski (Gordon) in a letter to Collins in 2011.

   “My goal was to teach with enthusiasm and compassion,” Collins replied.  “After this letter I feel my goal was achieved.  Stanley you have given me everlasting youth through these memories.”

   Before her death Collins moved to a facility in Quincy, Pennsylvania near her son and daughter-in-law’s home.  She died April 8 at age 105.  After services in Amsterdam she was buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Fort Johnson.  She is also survived by three grandchildren, two of them are medical doctors and the third is a teacher.

Friday, February 10, 2023

Episode 461-Alan Maddaus is author of Wright Peak Elegy: A Story of Cold War, Nuclear Deterrence and Ultimate Sacrifice. The book tells the story of a U.S. B 47e jet bomber that crashed into Wright Peak in New York’s Adirondack Mountains in in January 1962.

Saturday February 11, 2023-From the Archives-Episode 172, July 14, 2017, Roger Seiler has written an historical novel “Master of Alaska,” based on the story of Aleksandr Baranov, a merchant who served as governor of Russian Alaska from 1799 to 1818.

Sunday, February 12, 2023-Amsterdam’s Wilson family

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, February 9, 2023

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Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Episode 417

Author Bryan Jackson presents a new and unique look at the many circumstances that came together the night of April 14, 1912 to claim over 1,500 lives and leave Titanic lying in 12,000 feet of water on the bottom of the North Atlantic.

Thursday, February 9, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Reid Hill’s favorite teacher 

Florence Collins 

   Born in 1911, her parents were Anthony and Pelagia Lulkowska Dabrowski.  They had come to America from Torun, Poland, birthplace of Copernicus.  Her given first name was long and Polish and, according to her son’s eulogy, she decided to call herself “Florence” because of a neighbor woman who had that name.

Friday, February 10, 2023

Episode 461-Alan Maddaus is author of Wright Peak Elegy: A Story of Cold War, Nuclear Deterrence and Ultimate Sacrifice. The book tells the story of a U.S. B 47e jet bomber that crashed into Wright Peak in New York’s Adirondack Mountains in in January 1962.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, February 8, 2023

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 In recent years, however, some academics and native people have criticized, for example, Jackson’s English-only approach to educating native speakers.  Professor Stephen Haycox of the University of Alaska said Jackson’s efforts were a detriment to native languages.  Jackson also has been faulted for his dealings with Native Americans and Mormons in the lower 48 states.

 Minaville native well-known in Alaska

By Bob Cudmore

   Born in the town of Florida hamlet of Minaville in 1834 and buried at the hamlet’s Chuctanunda Cemetery in 1909, Sheldon Jackson had a major impact on Alaska.

   Many praise Jackson for improving conditions for Alaska’s native peoples.  He was called the “dynamic St. Paul of America” in Daily Gazette coverage of his achievements in 1934.  Elizabeth Tower wrote a sympathetic biography of the missionary in 1988.

   Time Magazine in 2009 marked the 50th anniversary of the 49th state, and placed Jackson as number two on a list of the top ten Alaskans.  The magazine praised him for “setting up free public schools for Native American, Eskimo and white children.”

  In recent years, however, some academics and native people have criticized, for example, Jackson’s English-only approach to educating native speakers.  Professor Stephen Haycox of the University of Alaska said Jackson’s efforts were a detriment to native languages.  Jackson also has been faulted for his dealings with Native Americans and Mormons in the lower 48 states.

   Jackson was the son of a prosperous Minaville farmer and legislator, Samuel C. Jackson, and his wife Delia Sheldon Jackson, daughter of New York State Assembly Speaker Alexander Sheldon.

The Historians Podcast 2023 fund drive is in progress for the new year. $7000 by December 31. Online use this link https://www.gofundme.com/the-historians-podcast

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   Samuel C. Jackson’s father was a merchant, farmer, legislator and military officer also named Samuel Jackson. 

   The family name was given to the Erie Canal community of Port Jackson in 1835.  Port Jackson was later annexed by the city of Amsterdam and is known today as the city’s South Side. 

   Sheldon Jackson’s family were devout Presbyterians.  He attended Union College and Princeton Theological Seminary.  He was graduated, ordained and married within one week in 1858.  His wife was Mary Voorhees from Mill Point in Glen.  

   Reverend Jackson wanted to be a foreign missionary but was turned down by the church because of concerns for his poor eyesight and short stature—he was just five feet tall. 

   Instead, he became a missionary on the American frontier.  He established over one hundred churches and missions, including the first Presbyterian churches in Wyoming, Montana, Utah and Arizona.  He traveled over a million miles in his career.

   In 1877, Jackson went north to Alaska and, although he never permanently lived there, was appointed superintendent of education in the territory in 1885.

   Jackson found the natives were starving.  American whalemen had destroyed the whales and walruses the natives depended on for food.  The introduction of firearms also decimated fur-bearing animals in the interior.

   Jackson visited Siberia and found the indigenous people there relied on domesticated reindeer for food.  Jackson raised funds to introduce reindeer herds in Alaska. 

   Sent by the U.S. government to Lapland and Norway in 1898, he purchased over 500 reindeer and secured a colony of Laplanders to look after the animals until Alaskan natives were trained in how to raise reindeer.

   He collected native artifacts and his collection was the basis for the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka, which he helped create in 1888.  Rosemary Carlton, in a 2006 article, however, called into question what she called Jackson’s “duplicitous” collection of traditional artifacts from native peoples he had worked hard to change

   Toward the end of his life Jackson lived in Washington, D.C., where he served with the Alaskan division of the U.S. Bureau of Education.  His wife died in 1908.   Jackson died the next year.

   In 1955 teacher Florence Collins and her class of fifth graders from Amsterdam’s Vrooman Avenue School produced two programs on the native peoples of Alaska and Sheldon Jackson that aired live on WRGB television.

   As one of her students that year, I wore a parka and carried a small harpoon on television.

Wednesday, February 8, 2023-Episode 417-Bryan Jackson is author of Why the Titanic Was Doomed.  Titanic, the most magnificent ocean liner of her time, was destined for disaster before she left the docks at Southampton according to Jackson--doomed by her owner, designers and the men who sailed her.

Author Bryan Jackson presents a new and unique look at the many circumstances that came together the night of April 14, 1912 to claim over 1,500 lives and leave Titanic lying in 12,000 feet of water on the bottom of the North Atlantic.

Thursday, February 9, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Reid Hill’s favorite teacher 

Florence Collins lived most of her life in the house where she grew up on Amsterdam’s Pulaski Street in the then predominately Polish enclave called Reid Hill.

Friday, February 10, 2023-Episode 461-Alan Maddaus is author of Wright Peak Elegy: A Story of Cold War, Nuclear Deterrence and Ultimate Sacrifice. The book tells the story of a U.S. B 47e jet bomber that crashed into Wright Peak in New York’s Adirondack Mountains in in January 1962.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, February 7, 2023

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The Historians Podcast 2023 fund drive is afoot!  The Twenty Twenty Three goal is $7000. You may donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/the-historians-podcast

U.S. Mail Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302

New to the production list, The Bob Cudmore interview with Steve Haggerty, Norman Rockwell’s models. Likely posted (such as well might happen or be true; probable) in early March

Monday, February 6, 2023-Story behind the story, Shuttleworth Park

Tuesday, February 7, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Sheldon Jackson from Minaville had a big impact on Alaska

   Born in the town of Florida hamlet of Minaville in 1834 and buried at the hamlet’s Chuctanunda Cemetery in 1909, Sheldon Jackson had a major impact on Alaska

Wednesday, February 8, 2023-From the Archives-We don't know Yet

Thursday, February 9, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Reid Hill’s favorite teacher 

Friday, February 10, 2023-Episode 461-Alan Maddaus is author of Wright Peak Elegy: A Story of Cold War, Nuclear Deterrence and Ultimate Sacrifice. The book tells the story of a U.S. B 47e jet bomber that crashed into Wright Peak in New York’s Adirondack Mountains in in January 1962.

By Bob Cudmore

   The Amsterdam baseball stadium and adjacent land that we call Shuttleworth Park has had several other names through the years.

   Historian Hugh Donlon wrote that Edward and Thomas McCaffrey built the facility which they called Crescent Park, in 1914 along the North Chuctanunda Creek in the city’s Rockton section,.  Many patrons went there on trolleys of the Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad.

   Crescent Park became Jollyland when it was taken over by Fred J. Collins in 1923.

   Americana collector Scott Meikle of Brooklyn once asked for information on a photo he purchased of a smiling beauty queen with a banner over her shoulder that said Miss Jollyland. 

   Meikle wrote, “From her hairstyle and bathing suit, I’d guess the photo dates from the late 1920s to early 1930s.  I like the image because the girl seems very real and good-humored.”

   Jollyland made use of one of Amsterdam’s industrial products—buttons.  The Chalmers family had factories that produced knit goods, tools and hardware.  Arthur and his father Harvey Chalmers also started Hampshire Pearl Button Company in 1898 over the North Chuctanunda Creek. 

   Donlon wrote the plant originally made buttons from clamshells from the Mississippi River, “Employment at peak output was about 1,000, including Amsterdam housewives who added to family income by sewing buttons on cards at home.”

   Buttons were so plentiful that walkways at Jollyland were paved with discarded buttons from the Chalmers mill.  That memory came from Amsterdamian Margaret Reilly.

   Music was a part of the entertainment at Jollyland.  Jerry Barnell and His Society Orchestra played there in the 1930s. Barnell went on to be the bandleader at Amsterdam High School.

   Mohawk Carpet Mills started using Jollyland for employee events in 1927.  The park was renamed Mohawk Mills Park in 1934 when the carpet mill took over the facility for its 2,800-member employee association.  The company promised to use a “force of men” to renovate the park for a grand opening that year.

   Mohawk Mills Park had a baseball diamond, tennis courts, dance pavilion, merry-go-round, whip, aerial swing, roller skating rink and what were called chair-o-planes.  Amsterdam resident Sophie Gomula said there was a miniature train.

   A 1934 newspaper story stated, “A mammoth opening and field day is planned. The public is cordially invited to join the employees of the mills in making this an occasion to be remembered.  It will be recalled that in 1929, the field day held at the park brought out an attendance of from 12,000 to 15,000 people.”

   In 1939, Mohawk Mills Park became home of the Amsterdam Rugmakers, a New York Yankees farm team in the Canadian-American league.  Virginia Dybas Czelusniak used to go to the games.  Admission was 40 cents and the scorecard cost five cents.  Czelusniak, who grew up on Crane Street, said she and her friends liked talking with the young ballplayers.

   The Yankees played two exhibition games at Mohawk Mills Park in the 1940s. Joe DiMaggio was on the field in in 1942 and Yogi Berra played there in 1949.  Local minor league baseball declined then disappeared in the 1950s.

   In 1977, the park received its current name, Herbert Shuttleworth II Park.

 Shuttleworth was the last local chief executive of Mohawk Carpet and Mohasco and also was president of the Rugmakers baseball team in its heyday.

   Amsterdam baseball coach Brian Spagnola is credited with bringing the Amsterdam Mohawks collegiate team to the local scene and working to improve Shuttleworth Park.

   This year Spagnola was inducted into the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame. Spagnola played and coached at the collegiate level and coached in other areas of the Capital Region. 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, February 6, 2022

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By Bob Cudmore

   The Amsterdam baseball stadium and adjacent land that we call Shuttleworth Park has had several other names through the years.

   Historian Hugh Donlon wrote that Edward and Thomas McCaffrey built the facility which they called Crescent Park, in 1914 along the North Chuctanunda Creek in the city’s Rockton section,.  Many patrons went there on trolleys of the Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad.

   Crescent Park became Jollyland when it was taken over by Fred J. Collins in 1923.

   Americana collector Scott Meikle of Brooklyn once asked for information on a photo he purchased of a smiling beauty queen with a banner over her shoulder that said Miss Jollyland. 

   Meikle wrote, “From her hairstyle and bathing suit, I’d guess the photo dates from the late 1920s to early 1930s.  I like the image because the girl seems very real and good-humored.”

   Jollyland made use of one of Amsterdam’s industrial products—buttons.  The Chalmers family had factories that produced knit goods, tools and hardware.  Arthur and his father Harvey Chalmers also started Hampshire Pearl Button Company in 1898 over the North Chuctanunda Creek. 

   Donlon wrote the plant originally made buttons from clamshells from the Mississippi River, “Employment at peak output was about 1,000, including Amsterdam housewives who added to family income by sewing buttons on cards at home.”

   Buttons were so plentiful that walkways at Jollyland were paved with discarded buttons from the Chalmers mill.  That memory came from Amsterdamian Margaret Reilly.

   Music was a part of the entertainment at Jollyland.  Jerry Barnell and His Society Orchestra played there in the 1930s. Barnell went on to be the bandleader at Amsterdam High School.

   Mohawk Carpet Mills started using Jollyland for employee events in 1927.  The park was renamed Mohawk Mills Park in 1934 when the carpet mill took over the facility for its 2,800-member employee association.  The company promised to use a “force of men” to renovate the park for a grand opening that year.

   Mohawk Mills Park had a baseball diamond, tennis courts, dance pavilion, merry-go-round, whip, aerial swing, roller skating rink and what were called chair-o-planes.  Amsterdam resident Sophie Gomula said there was a miniature train.

   A 1934 newspaper story stated, “A mammoth opening and field day is planned. The public is cordially invited to join the employees of the mills in making this an occasion to be remembered.  It will be recalled that in 1929, the field day held at the park brought out an attendance of from 12,000 to 15,000 people.”

   In 1939, Mohawk Mills Park became home of the Amsterdam Rugmakers, a New York Yankees farm team in the Canadian-American league.  Virginia Dybas Czelusniak used to go to the games.  Admission was 40 cents and the scorecard cost five cents.  Czelusniak, who grew up on Crane Street, said she and her friends liked talking with the young ballplayers.

   The Yankees played two exhibition games at Mohawk Mills Park in the 1940s. Joe DiMaggio was on the field in in 1942 and Yogi Berra played there in 1949.  Local minor league baseball declined then disappeared in the 1950s.

   In 1977, the park received its current name, Herbert Shuttleworth II Park.

 Shuttleworth was the last local chief executive of Mohawk Carpet and Mohasco and also was president of the Rugmakers baseball team in its heyday.

   Amsterdam baseball coach Brian Spagnola is credited with bringing the Amsterdam Mohawks collegiate team to the local scene and working to improve Shuttleworth Park.

   This year Spagnola was inducted into the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame. Spagnola played and coached at the collegiate level and coached in other areas of the Capital Region.

The Historians Podcast 2023 fund drive is afoot!  The Twenty Twenty Three goal is $7000. You may donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/the-historians-podcast

U.S. Mail Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302

This Week on The Historians with Bob Cudmore, more on the Amsterdam Reads Program from Sunday, January 29th.
Moderated by Bob Cudmore

Dr. Majeed (center) will be recording an interview with Bob this Wednesday for her podcast "The Village"

When complete the conversation will be posted here on The Historians

Bob Cudmore and Alan Maddaus this Friday

February 10, 2022- Episode 461-Alan Maddaus is author of Wright Peak Elegy: A Story of Cold War, Nuclear Deterrence and Ultimate Sacrifice. The book tells the story of a U.S. B 47 jet bomber that crashed into Wright Peak in New York’s Adirondack Mountains in 1962.

Beginning with WW II Allied raids on Nazi Germany, the story continues with the onset of the Cold War, development of the jet-engine bomber, and the US strategy of nuclear deterrence. The ultimate sacrifice by some crews of the USAF B-47 Fleet-the high price of preserving the peace. 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Sunday, February 5, 2023

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The Historians Podcast 2023 fund drive is now underway!  The 2023 goal is $7000. You may donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/the-historians-podcast

U.S. Mail

Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302

Sunday, February 5, 2023

Shuttleworth Park through the years

 Americana collector Scott Meikle of Brooklyn once asked for information on a photo he purchased of a smiling beauty queen with a banner over her shoulder that said Miss Jollyland.

Episode 460-“When Mommy Was a Commie” is a comic novel set  in Schenectady in the early 1950s, inspired by real-life episodes from America’s spy war with Russia.  Author Jon Sorensen was a newspaper reporter covering government and politics for The Schenectady Gazette, Buffalo News and New York Daily News.

Next Week on The Historians with Bob Cudmore, more on the Amsterdam Reads Program from Sunday, January 29th.
Moderated by Bob Cudmore

Dr. Majeed (center) will be recording an interview with Bob for her podcast "The Village"

The link will be posted here on The Historians

...and the latest interview next Friday, Bob Cudmore and Alan Maddaus

Friday, February 10, 2022- Episode 461-Alan Maddaus is author of Wright Peak Elegy: A Story of Cold War, Nuclear Deterrence and Ultimate Sacrifice. The book tells the story of a U.S. B 47 jet bomber that crashed into Wright Peak in New York’s Adirondack Mountains in 1962. 

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, February 4, 2023

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The Historians Podcast 2023 fund drive is now underway!  The 2023 goal is $7000. You may donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/the-historians-podcast

Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  Thanks to this week’s donors—Amsterdam Reads and Anonymous.

Memories of Rocco Petrone

By Bob Cudmore

Retired teacher Joe Inglese from the town of Florida has contributed more memories of Amsterdam’s rocket man, Rocco Petrone.

Amsterdam city historian Robert von Hasseln compiled biographical data on Petrone, launch director at Kennedy Space Flight Center in Florida who was what the New York Times called a “driving force” in the Apollo moon program.

Inglese wrote, “When I was in high school at the old Perth Central School I remember that our guidance counselor Bob Coluni had a framed photo of Rocco Petrone in his West Point uniform hanging in his office. The picture was certainly motivational for many of us at that time.

“In the 1990s when my wife and I took our daughters to visit my in-laws in Florida during a February vacation we visited the space center. In the Apollo Building we saw the actual mission control center from July of 1969.

“My father-in-law Marc Palombi and I both yelled out when we saw Rocco Petrone in the clips. We had our pride on our sleeves as we explained to the other patrons that Rocco was from our hometown.”  

Petrone was born in Amsterdam in 1926 to Italian immigrant parents.  He died in 2006 and Petrone Square in downtown Amsterdam is named for him.

CIVIC BOOSTER

Amsterdam’s Board of Trade, predecessor of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, was instrumental in the movement to make Amsterdam a city in 1885. 

The effort to incorporate as a city initially ran into opposition in Albany.  Governor Grover Cleveland and the State Legislature brushed off the idea of making Amsterdam a city in 1884 because the local delegation had not gone through proper political channels and lacked a formal promotional organization.

This rebuff from Albany led about 100 civic boosters to form the Board of Trade to lobby the politicians in Albany.  The Amsterdam city charter came into existence on April 16, 1885.

Industrialists such as carpet magnate Stephen Sanford and knitting mill owner Theodore Yund were key to the organization.  The booster group also included merchants such as Dater Shaul, physicians such as S.H. French and clergymen, politicians, lawyers and even newspaper people.

At the 1902 annual Board of Trade meeting, Morning Sentinel newspaper editor George H. Loadwick gave an impassioned speech praising the city’s growth from the time of its founding as a hamlet a century earlier around Albert Vedder’s gristmill on the Chuctanunda Creek.”

“The creaking of Vedder’s mill has given place to a chorus of industry in which thousands of mighty wheels whirl and spin in merry thrift,” Loadwick said.  “The old creek, once the power upon which the commercial life of this community depended may now ripple along in its lazy beauty since steam, with all its power, has pushed it aside.”

Loadwick was described by historian Washington Frothingham as a keen with and brilliant debater who was “blunt and abrupt in manner and speech.”

In his 1902 Board of Trade speech, Loadwick praised the growth of industry, “The carpet mills, the oil mills, the knitting mills, foundries, rug mills and scores of other industries, great and small that add to the noises of the world are active evidence of the strides of enterprise and advancement.”

He added that wagon springs made in Amsterdam “afford comfort to the carriage riding world” while every “well-swept household in America” benefits from Amsterdam-made brooms.

POINT BREEZE

The Point Breeze Farm was a landmark at the intersection of Golf Course Road and Steadwell Avenue years ago.  Owned by Hanson Mabie, the property boasted a classy red barn with stenciled horses on the doors.  Some of the farm lanes had masonry entryways.

Friday, February 3, 2023-Episode 460-“When Mommy Was a Commie” is a novel set  in Schenectady in the early 1950s, inspired by real-life episodes from America’s spy war with Russia.  Author Jon Sorensen was a newspaper reporter covering government and politics for The Schenectady Gazette, Buffalo News and New York Daily News. 

Saturday February 4, 2023-From the Archives- May 18, 2018-Historians Episode 215- Michael Doyle is the author of “The Ministers’ War: John W. Mears, the Oneida Community, and the Crusade for Public Morality.”  A new book on a 19th century utopian community in upstate New York.

Sunday, February 5, 2023-Shuttleworth Park through the years

   The Amsterdam baseball stadium and adjacent land that we call Shuttleworth Park has had several other names through the years.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, February 2, 2023

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A new month on The Historians, were loaded for bear, but we don't shoot bear!

We will find a good picture of a bear and post it tomorrow.

Friday, February 3, 2023-Episode 460-When Mommy Was a Commie is a historical comic novel set in Schenectady in the 1950s, inspired by episodes from America’s spy war with Russia.  Author Jon Sorensen was a newspaper reporter for The Schenectady Gazette, Buffalo News and New York Daily News.    

Friday, February 10, 2022- Episode 461-Alan Maddaus is author of Wright Peak Elegy: A Story of Cold War, Nuclear Deterrence and Ultimate Sacrifice. The book tells the story of a U.S. B 47e jet bomber that crashed into Wright Peak in New York’s Adirondack Mountains in 1962. 

Friday, February 17, 2022- Episode 462-Author Mark Dawidziak investigates Edgar Allan Poe’s strange death in Baltimore, and chronicles Poe’s storm-tossed life in his book A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe.

Friday, February 24, 2022-Episode 463-The first Highlights Edition in 2023 with excerpts from these podcasts: Bill Buell’s Schenectady stories from the 1920s, NY State Historian Devin Lander, Jerry Snyder on ghost tours and more in Amsterdam, Jon Sorensen’s book When Mommy Was a Commie and Alan Maddaus on a U.S. jet bomber that crashed in New York’s Adirondack Mountains in 1962  

The Historians Podcast 2023 fund drive is now underway!

Mohawk Valley History on the Internet and Radio

Use the 2022 link for 2023, the goal is $7000. https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022 

The U.S. Mail

Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  

Thursday, February 2, 2023-Rocco Petrone, Amsterdam’s rocket man

Retired teacher Joe Inglese from the town of Florida has contributed more memories of Amsterdam’s rocket man, Rocco Petrone.

Amsterdam city historian Robert von Hasseln compiled biographical data on Petrone, launch director at Kennedy Space Flight Center in Florida who was what the New York Times called a “driving force” in the Apollo moon program.

Friday, February 3, 2023-Episode 460-“When Mommy Was a Commie” is a novel set  in Schenectady in the early 1950s, inspired by real-life episodes from America’s spy war with Russia.  Author Jon Sorensen was a newspaper reporter covering government and politics for The Schenectady Gazette, Buffalo News and New York Daily News. 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, February 1, 2023

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