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   Being a city of hills, Amsterdam was ideal for the winter sport of bobsledding.  In the late 1800s and early 1900s, winter coasting carnivals brought visitors from miles around to slide down steep city thoroughfares including Market, Northampton, Bell and Locust.

Thank you for the snappy response to our plea for donors to the 2023 Historians Podcast.  Thanks to New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan and to Amsterdam native Tom Urbelis for their generous donations. The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore We’ve now raised $595 toward the 2023 goal of $7000. Please donate online or dispatch a check Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  

Amsterdam was once a bobsled center

By Bob Cudmore

   Being a city of hills, Amsterdam was ideal for the winter sport of bobsledding.  In the late 1800s and early 1900s, winter coasting carnivals brought visitors from miles around to slide down steep city thoroughfares including Market, Northampton, Bell and Locust.

   The Amsterdam Daily Democrat gave a full account of a nighttime coasting carnival in February 1887 on Market Street. There was a parade and parties after the races, which went on into the night.  Red flares and Japanese lanterns lighted the course.

   The bobsleds had front and rear steering, clanging bells and brake systems, according to historian Hugh Donlon, “Much depended on the steersmen and brakeman of the teams that ranged from 10 to 20 men, all colorfully uniformed. The Joker Club, for instance, wore red St. Nicholas caps, red coats, blue cuffs and collars, blue knee breeches, red stockings and low shoes.”

   Despite the precautions, serious and even fatal accidents sometimes resulted and the sport was finally banned in the 1920s, when motor traffic increased.

   For the coasting carnival on Valentine’s night in 1887 the weather was not ideal according to the Daily Democrat.  Amsterdam had thaw and slush, not the clear, bracing weather that was desired.  Nonetheless the newspaper reported the evening was “fairly successful.”

   A dozen or more coasting clubs arrived from Albany on the 6:16 p.m. train, which included a special car for their handsome bobsleds or bobs.  The Thirteenth Brigade Band of the National Guard played to greet them.  The “hungry bobbers” did “ample justice” to food provided at the Y.M.C.A. and the Hotel Warner.  

   The band played again at 7:30 p.m. for a parade through downtown and up Market Street hill for a fireworks display. Albany’s clubs included several named Yum Yum.  Other clubs included Beverwyck, Monitor and even a club named for Tammany Hall, the New York Democratic Party political machine. 

    The newspaper reported, “The bobbers presented a very pleasing appearance in their neat and tasteful uniforms. The Beverwyck club were attired in dark blue and white, the Yum Yums in orange, the Monitor club in gray, and the Tammany Hall club in plaid suits.”

   Clubs from Fort Plain and other points west arrived on the 8:43 p.m. train.  Coasting began at 9 p.m.  There were no races as it was too dark.

   The Democrat wrote, “The bob Beverwyck made the first trip down the slide. As it was turning the corner at the foot of the hill it went over the bank. The bobs Niagara, Bob Moore and Nonpareil, which were close behind, ran into the Beverwyck. The crews of

the bobs were thrown into a confused mass. Several persons received injuries.”

   The bobs were hauled by teams of horses up Northampton Road to the top of Market Street hill for the next event.  Yum Yum ’88 tipped over during the second slide down the hill.  On that run, Yum Yum ’87 collided with Yum Yum ‘86.

   The wounded were taken to the house of Dr. Timmerman.  One injured man spent the night at the Hotel Warner and was attended by two Amsterdam doctors.

   Despite the accidents, the Democrat wrote, “The heavy bobs sped down the hill like lightning and the coasters greatly enjoyed the sport. The Tammany Hall was one of the fastest, if not the most fleet bob on the slide. The Flyway of Fort Plain made good time.”

   The Amsterdam Coasting Association entertained at a party at the Y.M.C.A. after the event.  The out of town teams left on midnight trains east and west.

   Some Albanians stayed overnight and enjoyed a barouche ride the next day.  A barouche is a stylish horse drawn carriage.

Wednesday, February 15, 2023-From the Archives, June 25, 2021-Episode 376-New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan considers the impact of black separatist leader Marcus Garvey on African independence.

Thursday, February 16, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Snow day in Amsterdam 

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Friday, February 17, 2023-Episode 462-Author Mark Dawidziak investigates Edgar Allan Poe’s strange death in Baltimore, and revisits the moments of his storm-tossed life in his book A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, February 14, 2023

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Thank you for the quick response to our plea for donors to the 2023 Historians Podcast.  Thanks to New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan and to Amsterdam native Tom Urbelis for their generous donations.

Go Fund Me 2023 Link

The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore

  We’ve now raised $595 toward the 2023 goal of $7000. Please donate online or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  NYC attorney and historian Jim Kaplan wrote, “You are a great resource to the people of New York State.  As your New York City correspondent, I am proud to participate and encourage you to continue your efforts to expand your listener base.”

Monday, February 13, 2023

Story behind the story, Amsterdam’s Wilson family

Tuesday, February 14, 2023-From the Daily Gazette-On Valentine’s night in 1887, a bobsled coasting carnival provided spectacle and chaos in Amsterdam

   The Amsterdam Daily Democrat gave a full account of a nighttime coasting carnival in February 1887 on Market Street. There was a parade and parties after the races, which went on into the night.  Red flares and Japanese lanterns lighted the course.

Wednesday, February 15, 2023-From the Archives, June 25, 2021-Episode 376-New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan considers the impact of black separatist leader Marcus Garvey on African independence.

Thursday, February 16, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Snow day in Amsterdam 

Friday, February 17, 2023-Episode 462-Author Mark Dawidziak investigates Edgar Allan Poe’s strange death in Baltimore, and revisits the moments of his storm-tossed life in his book A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe.

A Mystery of Mysteries is a brilliant biography of Edgar Allan Poe that examines the renowned author’s life through the prism of his mysterious death and its many possible causes. It is a moment shrouded in horror and mystery. Edgar Allan Poe died on October 7, 1849, at just forty, in a painful, utterly bizarre manner that would not have been out of place in one of his own tales of terror

This weekend on The Historians with Bob Cudmore 

Mohawk Valley’s Reindeer Man

Focus on History 

Mohawk Valley native Sheldon Jackson, a Presbyterian missionary, had a major impact on life in Alaska.

Wilson Family Story

He will understand and say well done

By Bob Cudmore 

   National Football League quarterback Russell Wilson, now with the Denver Broncos, has ancestors who lived in Amsterdam. 

   Russell Wilson’s great grandfather, Harrison Wilson Senior, was born in Falmouth, Kentucky, relocating to Amsterdam in 1910.

   Harrison Senior and his wife Marguerite Ayers Wilson raised eight children.  Marguerite’s grandmother had taught at a one room school in Kentucky.

   Harrison Senior was a plasterer, although racial discrimination kept him out of the union.  He later was the maintenance man for Amsterdam builder and landlord Thomas McGibbon.

   The Wilson children all pursued substantial careers in education, law, health care, industry, media and sports.

   Harrison Senior’s son, Harrison Wilson, Junior, shined shoes and delivered newspapers as a seven-year-old.  His mother told him he looked like his grandfather and that instilled pride in the young man. 

   He was the only African American on Amsterdam High School’s championship basketball team during the 1942-43 season.  Coach Ed Cionek called him the team’s “key player.”

   Harrison Junior and his siblings were childhood friends of the late restaurateur Sam Pepe Junior when both families lived on West Main Street.  Pepe recalled going to YMCA summer camp with Harrison Junior and Wilson’s brother Willis. 

   Pepe said he could always find Harrison Junior in a crowd because of his distinctive walk and a small gray spot on the back of his head.

   Harrison Senior heroically saved the lives of two female pin setters working at a bowling alley in an East Main Street building owned by McGibbon which was destroyed by fire in April 1943. 

   McGibbon died later that year and left a private parking lot in busy downtown Amsterdam to the Wilsons.  The lot was on Federal Street between Church and Chuctanunda streets. 

   A Wilson family member kept watch on the cars from inside a small shed.  They would brush the snow off your car and back it out for you if necessary.

   Harrison Junior played every sport he could in high school, even speed skating.  After graduation in 1943, he entered the U.S. Navy and was tops in his class at basic training.  He was a hospital corpsman.

   When World War II ended, he became a student and basketball star at Kentucky State, then basketball coach at Jackson State in Mississippi.  He taught at Jackson State and earned a doctorate at Indiana University.

   He frequently visited his parents in Amsterdam and provided help to young African Americans who wanted to pursue higher education. 

  He spoke at a 1957 vesper service at St. Paul’s AME Zion Church then on Cedar Street.  The church was torn down when the Amsterdam elderly high rise and town house apartments were built.      

   Marguerite Wilson died in 1960.  Soloist Marilyn Lyons sang “He Will Understand and Say Well Done” at Marguerite’s funeral. 

   Harrison Junior became president of Norfolk State University in Virginia in 1975 and led that historically black institution until his retirement in 1997.

   Harrison, Senior died in 1982 at 94.  Harrison Junior was guest speaker at an Amsterdam High School graduation in the 1990s.

   One of Harrison Junior’s six children, Harrison Wilson III, was a Dartmouth graduate and attorney who almost got into playing professional football with the San Diego Chargers.  Harrison III died from complications from diabetes in 2010.  Harrison Junior passed away in 2019 at age 94.

     NFL quarterback Russell Wilson is the son of Harrison Wilson III, grandson of Harrison Junior and great grandson of Harrison Senior.

   When Russell Wilson was quarterback with the Seattle Seahawks, he led the team to victory in Super Bowl 48 on February 2, 2014.  The Seahawks lost to New England in the 2015 Super Bowl. 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, February 13, 2023

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The Historians Podcast, organized by Bob Cudmore

Thank you for the quick response to our plea for donors to the 2023 Historians Podcast.  Thanks to New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan and to Amsterdam native Tom Urbelis for their generous donations.  We’ve now raised $595 toward the 2023 goal of $7000. Please donate online or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  NYC attorney and historian Jim Kaplan wrote, “You are a great resource to the people of New York State.  As your New York City correspondent, I am proud to participate and encourage you to continue your efforts to expand your listener base.”

He will understand and say well done

By Bob Cudmore 

   National Football League quarterback Russell Wilson, now with the Denver Broncos, has ancestors who lived in Amsterdam. 

   Russell Wilson’s great grandfather, Harrison Wilson Senior, was born in Falmouth, Kentucky, relocating to Amsterdam in 1910.

   Harrison Senior and his wife Marguerite Ayers Wilson raised eight children.  Marguerite’s grandmother had taught at a one room school in Kentucky.

   Harrison Senior was a plasterer, although racial discrimination kept him out of the union.  He later was the maintenance man for Amsterdam builder and landlord Thomas McGibbon.

   The Wilson children all pursued substantial careers in education, law, health care, industry, media and sports.

   Harrison Senior’s son, Harrison Wilson, Junior, shined shoes and delivered newspapers as a seven-year-old.  His mother told him he looked like his grandfather and that instilled pride in the young man. 

   He was the only African American on Amsterdam High School’s championship basketball team during the 1942-43 season.  Coach Ed Cionek called him the team’s “key player.”

   Harrison Junior and his siblings were childhood friends of the late restaurateur Sam Pepe Junior when both families lived on West Main Street.  Pepe recalled going to YMCA summer camp with Harrison Junior and Wilson’s brother Willis. 

   Pepe said he could always find Harrison Junior in a crowd because of his distinctive walk and a small gray spot on the back of his head.

   Harrison Senior heroically saved the lives of two female pin setters working at a bowling alley in an East Main Street building owned by McGibbon which was destroyed by fire in April 1943. 

   McGibbon died later that year and left a private parking lot in busy downtown Amsterdam to the Wilsons.  The lot was on Federal Street between Church and Chuctanunda streets. 

   A Wilson family member kept watch on the cars from inside a small shed.  They would brush the snow off your car and back it out for you if necessary.

   Harrison Junior played every sport he could in high school, even speed skating.  After graduation in 1943, he entered the U.S. Navy and was tops in his class at basic training.  He was a hospital corpsman.

   When World War II ended, he became a student and basketball star at Kentucky State, then basketball coach at Jackson State in Mississippi.  He taught at Jackson State and earned a doctorate at Indiana University.

   He frequently visited his parents in Amsterdam and provided help to young African Americans who wanted to pursue higher education. 

  He spoke at a 1957 vesper service at St. Paul’s AME Zion Church then on Cedar Street.  The church was torn down when the Amsterdam elderly high rise and town house apartments were built.      

   Marguerite Wilson died in 1960.  Soloist Marilyn Lyons sang “He Will Understand and Say Well Done” at Marguerite’s funeral. 

   Harrison Junior became president of Norfolk State University in Virginia in 1975 and led that historically black institution until his retirement in 1997.

   Harrison, Senior died in 1982 at 94.  Harrison Junior was guest speaker at an Amsterdam High School graduation in the 1990s.

   One of Harrison Junior’s six children, Harrison Wilson III, was a Dartmouth graduate and attorney who almost got into playing professional football with the San Diego Chargers.  Harrison III died from complications from diabetes in 2010.  Harrison Junior passed away in 2019 at age 94.

     NFL quarterback Russell Wilson is the son of Harrison Wilson III, grandson of Harrison Junior and great grandson of Harrison Senior.

   When Russell Wilson was quarterback with the Seattle Seahawks, he led the team to victory in Super Bowl 48 on February 2, 2014.  The Seahawks lost to New England in the 2015 Super Bowl. 

Monday, February 13, 2023-Story behind the story, Amsterdam’s Wilson family

Tuesday, February 14, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-On Valentine’s night in 1887, a bobsled coasting carnival provided spectacle and chaos in Amsterdam

   Being a city of hills, Amsterdam was ideal for the winter sport of bobsledding.  In the late 1800s and early 1900s, winter coasting carnivals brought visitors from miles around to slide down steep city thoroughfares including Market, Northampton, Bell and Locust.

Wednesday, February 15, 2023-From the Archives, June 25, 2021-Episode 376-New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan considers the impact of black separatist leader Marcus Garvey on African independence.

Thursday, February 16, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Snow day in Amsterdam 

Friday, February 17, 2023-Episode 462-Author Mark Dawidziak investigates Edgar Allan Poe’s strange death in Baltimore, and revisits the moments of his storm-tossed life in his book A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, February 12, 2023

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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.

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.

Meet- N-Greet with 2 former World Series Champions
Saturday, February 11, 2023
BRING ON BASEBALL SEASON

City of Amsterdam

https://www.amsterdamny.gov/Calendar.aspx?EID=910&month=2&year=2023&day=11&calType=0

Call Ahead

Lorenzo’s Southside from 3:30- 4:30pm Meet- N-Greet with 2 former World Series Champions Charlie Hayes and Cecil Fielder! Area Baseball Fans, coaches and parents bring your inspired baseball players to meet these two legends!

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Amsterdam’s Wilson family

Russell Wilson’s great grandfather, Harrison Wilson Senior, was born in Falmouth, Kentucky, relocating to Amsterdam in 1910.

They say it's winter, not sure. 58 next Thursday

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, February 11, 2023

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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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Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302

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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