The Historians

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

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

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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

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

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The Historians Podcast 2023 fund drive is now underway!

The 2022 Link is OK to use for 2023 Thanks (It's a teck thing, there are people on the back side of the moon who understand these things, they have yet to get back to us)  

The 2023 goal is $7000.  Be among the first to contribute to this year’s campaign.  You may donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  Thanks to this week’s donors—Maria Riccio Bryce and Bill Simons.

Picture:Daily Gazette

A modern meat market for the 1930s

By Bob Cudmore

   Two experienced butchers opened a high end meat market at 23 Market Street in bustling downtown Amsterdam on Saturday, February 23, 1929, eight months before the stock market crashed. 

   According to a promotional newspaper article, Zeiser & Lasher was the city’s model market, “One of the finest and most modern meat markets in New York State and one that will contain every known appliance, electrical and otherwise, for the scientific handling of market produce” The store boasted that it sold quality meats, “If you want the best, we have it.”

   Co-owner Carl Hugo Zeiser came to America from Germany when he was three years old and was a 35 year meat market veteran in Gloversville.  Zeiser had worked with his father in Gloversville making sausage.  Ellery Lasher was an Amsterdam native with 25 years of meat market experience in Amsterdam and Gloversville. He had worked three summers at markets in Alexandria Bay in northern New York.

   Emil W. Suda of Amsterdam has a photo from the store’s grand opening.  Eight vases filled with flowers are lined up atop the modern white enamel display case, which is trimmed in black. The case, chock full of meat, was made by Frigidaire and installed by John E. Larrabee Company, the hardware store just down the street. The cooling box was protected by four inches of cork.

   The new market promised that customer areas would be warm while the meat would be kept in the cooler case or cold storage.  The butcher shop had modern machinery for cutting meat and making meat products.

  Hansen and Dickson at 35 Main Street installed the shiny Armstrong checkered black and white linoleum.  The walls of the establishment were ivory and buff.

   The opening day ads touted beef, veal, chicken, pork, lamb, store-made sausage and First Prize hams. There was free delivery citywide and to Fort Johnson. You could call in your order to the store’s three digit phone number, 641.  Zeiser & Lasher promised the best ham for Easter in 1931.  Ham ends were 15 cents a pound.

  Amsterdam native Barbara Case of Cape Coral, Florida, has a picture of a sign made in 1929 promising, “We handle Zeiser & Lasher sausage and bolognas.” The sign hung in a meat market operated by Lang and Shandorf near Mill Point on Route 161 in the town of Glen, adjacent to Schoharie Creek.  Shandorf was the uncle of Case’s husband Richard. The sign was painted at Emil Zillgitt’s photo studio on East Main Street in Amsterdam.

  Zeiser & Lasher seemed to disappear in 1932. The City Directory that year showed City Cash Market occupying Zeiser & Lasher’s old space at 23 Market Street.  Zeiser later operated the Hotel Wells in Wells, N.Y. in Hamilton County.  He died in 1948.  Lasher apparently relocated to Scotia.

   In 1932 City Cash Market’s proprietors were Clara Farina and Vincent Giamio. The Farinas, James and Clara, also operated East End Fish Market at 201 East Main, which was their residential address. And they ran International Meat Market at 203 East Main. Vincent Giamio, who lived at 218 East Main, was part of all three businesses.  A 1936 ad for City Cash Market stated they sold meats wholesale and retail. Ham was 24 cents a pound.

   City Directories listed over 100 groceries and meat markets in Amsterdam in the 1930s. Some were chains such as A & P and Central Market. Local markets included Shelly’s at 283 East Main, Alexander Zielinski at 13 Hibbard, Beer’s Grocery at 86 Prospect, Albino Barnell at 50 Florida Avenue and Castler & Burns at 113 East Main.

Wednesday, February 1, 2023-From the Archives- Historians Episode 213-May 4 2018-Tim Wendel is author of a family memoir about the 1960s medical team at Roswell Park in Buffalo who made great strides in treating cancer: “Cancer Crossings: A Brother, His Doctors and the Quest for a Cure to Childhood Leukemia.”

When Eric Wendel was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 1966, the survival rate was less than 10 percent. Today, it is 90 percent. Even as politicians call for a "Cancer Moonshot", this accomplishment remains a pinnacle in cancer research.

Thursday, February 2, 2023- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Rocco Petrone, Amsterdam’s rocket man

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, Tuesday, January 31, 2023

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Monday, January 30, 2023-Story behind the story, Sanford Stud Farm fire

The Historians Podcast 2023 fund drive is now underway!  The 2023 goal is $7000.  Be among the first to contribute to this year’s campaign.  You may donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  Thanks to this week’s donors—Maria Riccio Bryce and Bill Simons.

Tuesday, January 31, 2023-A modern meat market in the 1930s

Two experienced butchers opened a high end meat market at 23 Market Street in bustling downtown Amsterdam on Saturday, February 23, 1929, eight months before the stock market crashed.

Wednesday, February 1, 2023-From the Archives- Historians Episode 213-May 4 2018-Tim Wendel is author of a family memoir about the 1960s medical team at Roswell Park in Buffalo who made great strides in treating cancer: “Cancer Crossings: A Brother, His Doctors and the Quest for a Cure to Childhood Leukemia.”

Thursday, February 2, 2023- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Rocco Petrone, Amsterdam’s rocket man

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. 

By Bob C.udmore

   No human lives were lost but 25 thoroughbred horses and a guard dog died in the January 9, 1939 fire at Sanford Stud Farm just north of Amsterdam’s city limits on Route 30.  Damage was estimated at $200,000. 

   Sam Hildebrandt, founder of the preservation group Friends of Sanford Stud Farm, said one theory about the 1939 fire is that it was started on purpose by a disgruntled worker, angered at the hazing new farmhands were subjected to by old-timers.

   However, research done by Patrick Boles, a volunteer with the Friends, indicated the exercise boy involved appears to have started the fire accidentally, although the youth was punished for violating terms of a parole he was serving while working at the farm.

   Newspaper accounts reported William H. Dougrey, 15, from Glens Falls started the fire by disposing of his lighted cigarette inside a barn.  Even if Dougrey had no intention of starting the blaze, Boles said smoking was prohibited inside Sanford’s barns because of the fear of fire.  No charges were filed in connection with the fire itself.

   The youth had been sent to work at Sanford farm after getting into unspecified trouble in Glens Falls.  After the fire, Sanford head trainer Hollie Hughes saw to it that the youth was sent back to Glens Falls court.  There Dougrey was found guilty of violating parole and served time at a state penal reformatory. 

   Former Sanford jockey Louis Hildebrandt, Sam’s father, said, “All of the farm employees who had to clean up after the disastrous fire, could only take the smell, filth and emotion for so long.”

   After working on the cleanup, the men would walk across a pasture and take refuge at William Patrick’s Tavern on Locust Avenue.  The barkeep let them in the back door, even on Sunday when the bar was closed.

   Later the tavern was owned by Stan and Irene Burza and today the building houses Kinowski Insurance Agency.

   Carpet mill executive Stephen Sanford started the thoroughbred horse farm, at first called Hurricana, in the 1870s.  His doctor advised Sanford a farm might ease his stomach ulcers if it took him away from the stress at his mills. 

   Sanford’s horses raced at Saratoga. Sanford’s sons—John and William—encouraged their father because of their own interest in fast horses, especially jumpers. William died in 1896. 

   In 1901, Stephen Sanford built his own stable on Nelson Avenue in Saratoga Springs. He had as many as 35 horses at a time. 

   From 1903 through 1907, the Sanfords invited the people of Amsterdam to Matinee Races at Hurricana on the Sunday closest to July 4th.

   New York outlawed betting in 1907 and racing stopped at Saratoga. Temporarily, the Sanfords sold most of their horses.

   Stephen Sanford was blind the last five years of his life. He died on February 13, 1913 at 86.  Six months later, racing resumed at Saratoga along with the first running of the Sanford Memorial.

   After 1913, John Sanford headed both the family carpet mills and horse farm.  The farm produced famous thoroughbreds, including 1916 Kentucky Derby winner George Smith and the winner of the 1923 English Grand National polo championship.  

   John Sanford died eight months after the 1939 horse barn fire.  John’s son, Stephen "Laddie" Sanford, a famous horseman, and John’s two daughters took over the farm.  Bigelow-Sanford Carpet left Amsterdam in 1955.  The farm was put up for sale in 1976, the year before Laddie died.

   The site of the former sprawling farm in the town of Amsterdam has been developed into a shopping mecca featuring Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Home Depot and other big box stores.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, January 30, 2023

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

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This afternoon at 2

Bob Cudmore Moderator

The Role of Female Doctors and Medical Professionals in Today’s Medicine will be the topic of an Amsterdam Reads panel discussion. Location: The auditorium at St. Mary's Carondelet Health Center, 380 Guy Park Avenue across from St. Mary’s Hospital.

Physicians taking part in the discussion will include Dr. Emily Etzkorn, Dr. Parul Saxena, Dr. Mahvash Majeed and Dr. Lydia Mawad (Melendez).  Amsterdam Reads is focusing this year on The Girl in His Shadow, a historical novel by Audrey Blake set in the era of Victorian medicine. 

Sunday, January 29th Kick-Off Event 2023 Book of the Year "The Girl in His Shadow" by Audrey Blake

The story of one woman who believed in scientific medicine before the world believed in her

Rescued from a pandemic’s wreckage and raised by the eccentric surgeon Dr. Horace Croft, orphan Nora Beady cares little for Victorian conventions. While other young ladies busy themselves with needlework and watercolors, Nora perfects her sutures and anatomical illustrations. 

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, January 29, 2023

The Historians Podcast 2023 fund drive is now underway!  The 2023 goal is $7000.  Be among the first to contribute to this year’s campaign.  You may donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  Thanks to this week’s donors—Maria Riccio Bryce and Bill Simons.

By Bob C.udmore

   No human lives were lost but 25 thoroughbred horses and a guard dog died in the January 9, 1939 fire at Sanford Stud Farm just north of Amsterdam’s city limits on Route 30.  Damage was estimated at $200,000. 

   Sam Hildebrandt, founder of the preservation group Friends of Sanford Stud Farm, said one theory about the 1939 fire is that it was started on purpose by a disgruntled worker, angered at the hazing new farmhands were subjected to by old-timers.

   However, research done by Patrick Boles, a volunteer with the Friends, indicated the exercise boy involved appears to have started the fire accidentally, although the youth was punished for violating terms of a parole he was serving while working at the farm.

   Newspaper accounts reported William H. Dougrey, 15, from Glens Falls started the fire by disposing of his lighted cigarette inside a barn.  Even if Dougrey had no intention of starting the blaze, Boles said smoking was prohibited inside Sanford’s barns because of the fear of fire.  No charges were filed in connection with the fire itself.

   The youth had been sent to work at Sanford farm after getting into unspecified trouble in Glens Falls.  After the fire, Sanford head trainer Hollie Hughes saw to it that the youth was sent back to Glens Falls court.  There Dougrey was found guilty of violating parole and served time at a state penal reformatory. 

   Former Sanford jockey Louis Hildebrandt, Sam’s father, said, “All of the farm employees who had to clean up after the disastrous fire, could only take the smell, filth and emotion for so long.”

   After working on the cleanup, the men would walk across a pasture and take refuge at William Patrick’s Tavern on Locust Avenue.  The barkeep let them in the back door, even on Sunday when the bar was closed.

   Later the tavern was owned by Stan and Irene Burza and today the building houses Kinowski Insurance Agency.

   Carpet mill executive Stephen Sanford started the thoroughbred horse farm, at first called Hurricana, in the 1870s.  His doctor advised Sanford a farm might ease his stomach ulcers if it took him away from the stress at his mills. 

   Sanford’s horses raced at Saratoga. Sanford’s sons—John and William—encouraged their father because of their own interest in fast horses, especially jumpers. William died in 1896. 

   In 1901, Stephen Sanford built his own stable on Nelson Avenue in Saratoga Springs. He had as many as 35 horses at a time. 

   From 1903 through 1907, the Sanfords invited the people of Amsterdam to Matinee Races at Hurricana on the Sunday closest to July 4th.

   New York outlawed betting in 1907 and racing stopped at Saratoga. Temporarily, the Sanfords sold most of their horses.

   Stephen Sanford was blind the last five years of his life. He died on February 13, 1913 at 86.  Six months later, racing resumed at Saratoga along with the first running of the Sanford Memorial.

   After 1913, John Sanford headed both the family carpet mills and horse farm.  The farm produced famous thoroughbreds, including 1916 Kentucky Derby winner George Smith and the winner of the 1923 English Grand National polo championship.  

   John Sanford died eight months after the 1939 horse barn fire.  John’s son, Stephen "Laddie" Sanford, a famous horseman, and John’s two daughters took over the farm.  Bigelow-Sanford Carpet left Amsterdam in 1955.  The farm was put up for sale in 1976, the year before Laddie died.

   The site of the former sprawling farm in the town of Amsterdam has been developed into a shopping mecca featuring Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Home Depot and other big box stores.

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

The Historians Podcast 2023 fund drive is now underway!  The 2023 goal is $7000.  Be among the first to contribute to this year’s campaign.  You may donate online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  Thanks to this week’s donors—Maria Riccio Bryce and Bill Simons.

Monday, January 30, 2023-Story behind the story, Sanford Stud Farm fire

Tuesday, January 31, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-A modern meat market in the 1930s

Wednesday, February 1, 2023-From the Archives- Historians Episode 213-May 4 2018-Tim Wendel is author of a family memoir about the 1960s medical team at Roswell Park in Buffalo who made great strides in treating cancer: “Cancer Crossings: A Brother, His Doctors and the Quest for a Cure to Childhood Leukemia.”

Thursday, February 2, 2023- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Rocco Petrone, Amsterdam’s rocket man

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 Weekend Weather, Sunday, January 29, 2023

By Bob C.udmore

   No human lives were lost but 25 thoroughbred horses and a guard dog died in the January 9, 1939 fire at Sanford Stud Farm just north of Amsterdam’s city limits on Route 30.  Damage was estimated at $200,000. 

   Sam Hildebrandt, founder of the preservation group Friends of Sanford Stud Farm, said one theory about the 1939 fire is that it was started on purpose by a disgruntled worker, angered at the hazing new farmhands were subjected to by old-timers.

   However, research done by Patrick Boles, a volunteer with the Friends, indicated the exercise boy involved appears to have started the fire accidentally, although the youth was punished for violating terms of a parole he was serving while working at the farm.

   Newspaper accounts reported William H. Dougrey, 15, from Glens Falls started the fire by disposing of his lighted cigarette inside a barn.  Even if Dougrey had no intention of starting the blaze, Boles said smoking was prohibited inside Sanford’s barns because of the fear of fire.  No charges were filed in connection with the fire itself.

   The youth had been sent to work at Sanford farm after getting into unspecified trouble in Glens Falls.  After the fire, Sanford head trainer Hollie Hughes saw to it that the youth was sent back to Glens Falls court.  There Dougrey was found guilty of violating parole and served time at a state penal reformatory. 

   Former Sanford jockey Louis Hildebrandt, Sam’s father, said, “All of the farm employees who had to clean up after the disastrous fire, could only take the smell, filth and emotion for so long.”

   After working on the cleanup, the men would walk across a pasture and take refuge at William Patrick’s Tavern on Locust Avenue.  The barkeep let them in the back door, even on Sunday when the bar was closed.

   Later the tavern was owned by Stan and Irene Burza and today the building houses Kinowski Insurance Agency.

   Carpet mill executive Stephen Sanford started the thoroughbred horse farm, at first called Hurricana, in the 1870s.  His doctor advised Sanford a farm might ease his stomach ulcers if it took him away from the stress at his mills. 

   Sanford’s horses raced at Saratoga. Sanford’s sons—John and William—encouraged their father because of their own interest in fast horses, especially jumpers. William died in 1896. 

   In 1901, Stephen Sanford built his own stable on Nelson Avenue in Saratoga Springs. He had as many as 35 horses at a time. 

   From 1903 through 1907, the Sanfords invited the people of Amsterdam to Matinee Races at Hurricana on the Sunday closest to July 4th.

   New York outlawed betting in 1907 and racing stopped at Saratoga. Temporarily, the Sanfords sold most of their horses.

   Stephen Sanford was blind the last five years of his life. He died on February 13, 1913 at 86.  Six months later, racing resumed at Saratoga along with the first running of the Sanford Memorial.

   After 1913, John Sanford headed both the family carpet mills and horse farm.  The farm produced famous thoroughbreds, including 1916 Kentucky Derby winner George Smith and the winner of the 1923 English Grand National polo championship.  

   John Sanford died eight months after the 1939 horse barn fire.  John’s son, Stephen "Laddie" Sanford, a famous horseman, and John’s two daughters took over the farm.  Bigelow-Sanford Carpet left Amsterdam in 1955.  The farm was put up for sale in 1976, the year before Laddie died.

   The site of the former sprawling farm in the town of Amsterdam has been developed into a shopping mecca featuring Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Home Depot and other big box stores.

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

Tomorrow at 2PM

Bob Cudmore Moderator

Sunday, January 29th Kick-Off Event 2023 Book of the Year "The Girl in His Shadow"

The Role of Female Doctors and Medical Professionals in Today’s Medicine will be the topic of an Amsterdam Reads panel discussion. Location: The auditorium at St. Mary's Carondelet Health Center, 380 Guy Park Avenue across from St. Mary’s Hospital.

Physicians taking part in the discussion will include Dr. Emily Etzkorn, Dr. Parul Saxena, Dr. Mahvash Majeed and Dr. Lydia Mawad (Melendez).  Amsterdam Reads is focusing this year on The Girl in His Shadow, a historical novel by Audrey Blake set in the era of Victorian medicine. 

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, January 28, 2023

Saturday January 28, 2023

Bob Cudmore and Dave Greene discuss bowling and pinsetting in upstate New York during the twentieth century. 

The Early Names of Shuttleworth Park

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History in The Gazette this Weekend

Leader Herald Make Us A Part Of Your Day

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