The Historians

This Sunday in Amsterdam

Bob Cudmore will moderate

The Role of Female Doctors and Medical Professionals in Today’s Medicine will be the topic of an Amsterdam Reads panel discussion this Sunday January 29, 2023 at 2 pm. 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. 

Russian disaster revived local submarine story

By Bob Cudmore

The explosion onboard the Russian submarine Kursk in August 2000 prompted an Amsterdam man to open up about his own rescue from a stricken submarine. 

Hydrogen peroxide in a torpedo on the Kursk exploded, causing other warheads to detonate, sending the submarine to the bottom of the Barents Sea, north of Russia.  All 188 sailors on board died.  Their bodies and the submarine were recovered in 2001 by a Dutch underwater team. 

Three days after the Kursk explosion, Donato Persico of Amsterdam was interviewed about submarine disasters by Lee Coleman for the Daily Gazette.  “Dan” Persico had been aboard the USS Squalus in May, 1939 when there was a valve failure and the boat sank 243 feet to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean near Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

"This happened so fast, there was no chance for an alarm," Persico said.  "We lost power and lost lights.”  The Amsterdam sailor was almost crushed by a torpedo.

Persico and other crew members closed watertight doors to prevent the entire submarine from flooding.  As the submarine sank, 29 sailors drowned.  Survivors donned woolen submarine coats and tried to stay still and use as little oxygen as possible.

"It was cold and dark," Persico said. "I had goose bumps . . . I was scared.”  At 20, he was the youngest man on board.  Persico was among the last of 33 crew members rescued in multiple trips of a diving bell deployed by the rescue ship Falcon on the surface. 

"It was the best ride I had in my life, the ride in that bell," Persico said. 

Persico said when the diving bell was about half-way up, there was a problem with the lifting cables, "They dropped us back to the bottom and pulled it in by hand with only one strand of cable.  I was on the last trip and rode up with the captain (Oliver F. Naquin of New Orleans).”

Anne Persico Signoracci of Cohoes, Donato’s sister, said the family was kept informed as the rescue unfolded by Amsterdam Police officers who periodically stopped at the family home with updates.  Signoracci said the experience gave her brother a new lease on life.

Persico served with distinction aboard two other submarines in the Pacific Ocean during World War II.  One of them, USS Batfish, sank three Japanese submarines in a period of 76 hours.  Persico retired in 1956 as a chief torpedo man and embarked on a career as a heavy equipment salesman for the L.B. Smith Co., covering the Capital Region.

He married Felicia Puglia of Amsterdam in 1974.  They had met during a chance encounter between Persico and another sailor and Puglia and one of her girlfriends at the bar of the former Peter Stuyvesant Hotel in Amsterdam.  After that meeting they did not see each other for ten years.  They married when Persico returned to Amsterdam permanently after his mother died.  The couple had no children. 

“He was my hero,” Felicia Persico said.  “A wonderful man, good sailor, a good husband.”

Persico retired in the 1970s and made trips with Felicia to Florida during the winter months.  They retained a residence on Broad Street on Amsterdam’s South Side.  They were active in a submariner veterans’ organization.  In September 2000 Persico was one of two Squalus survivors who shook hands with Navy Secretary Richard Danzig at a ceremony naming a Navy destroyer for the man who organized the Squalus rescue, Charles “Swede” Momsen.

Persico died January 26, 2001.  Family and friends lobbied the city of Amsterdam for a memorial to honor the submariner.  The intersection of Florida Avenue and Bridge Street was named Persico Square that September.

Friday, January 27, 2023-Episode 459-Jerry Snyder was one of the founders of Historic Amsterdam League, which focuses on the history of Amsterdam, N.Y.   

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, January 26, 2023

Leader Herald

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The Role of Female Doctors and Medical Professionals in Today’s Medicine will be the topic of an Amsterdam Reads panel discussion this Sunday January 29, 2023 at 2 pm.  The discussion, moderated by Gazette-Recorder history columnist and podcaster Bob Cudmore, will be held in 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. 

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Jerry Snyder talks about this year’s Historic Amsterdam League calendar focusing on that city’s vanished industries.  Plus Kelly Farquhar and Norm Bollen report on a recently found letter from a Revolutionary leader in the Mohawk Valley that makes reference to the Boston Tea Party.

Thursday, January 26, 2023

A submariner’s tale.

The explosion onboard the Russian submarine Kursk in August 2000 prompted an Amsterdam man to open up about his own rescue from a stricken submarine. 

Friday, January 27, 2023-Episode 459-Jerry Snyder was one of the founders of Historic Amsterdam League, which focuses on the history of Amsterdam, N.Y.   

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Leader Herald

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Johnstown Town Board approves Route 349 water study by Jason Subik

https://www.leaderherald.com/

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. 

This Sunday, January 29, 2023 at 2 pm.

The Role of Female Doctors and Medical Professionals in Today’s Medicine will be the topic of an Amsterdam Reads panel discussion moderated by Gazette-Recorder history columnist and podcaster Bob Cudmore. Location: in 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 barber was African American political leader

By Bob Cudmore

An Amsterdam barber, Robert A. Jackson, may have been active in the Underground Railroad and was an African American political leader in the late 1800s.

Montgomery County historian Kelly Yacobucci Farquhar said, “It is very possible that (Jackson) had Underground Railroad connections because he was not too far away from Chandler Bartlett’s shoe store that also reputedly sheltered freedom seekers.  Jackson’s barber shop was in an upper floor over 69 East Main Street which would be approximately where the Riverfront Center now sits.  He lived on Charles Street.”

In the late 1800s there were newspaper accounts describing Jackson’s role in what were then called Colored Conventions at the Montgomery County and state level

According to research compiled by historian Christopher Philippo, Jackson was one of five men appointed at a statewide convention of black Republicans to prepare an address to voters in 1872. 

In 1879 Jackson was chosen for the committee on principles and rules at the Colored Men’s Montgomery County Convention in Fonda.  He was named an at-large delegate to the group’s state convention in Elmira.

In August 1884 Jackson delivered a rousing speech in support of Republican Presidential candidate James Blaine and his running mate John Logan at a celebration of emancipation held in Canajoharie.  Other events that day included a parade, music and a reading of the emancipation proclamation.

The Amsterdam Daily Democrat reported that Jackson’s speech was fluent and enthusiastic and was applauded throughout, “Mr. Jackson clearly and forcibly reviewed the history of his people since the war, showing the marked difference between the attitudes of the two great parties toward them.

“The Republicans, he said, had given them the treatment they deserved and had done all in their power to dignify their condition, whereas the policy of the Democrats toward them has resulted only in their detriment.”

Blaine and Logan narrowly lost the Presidential election that year to New York Governor Grover Cleveland and his running mate Thomas Hendricks.  Cleveland was the first Democrat to be elected President since 1856.  He carried New York by a margin of just over a thousand votes to clinch the election.

In October 1884 the Amsterdam Daily Democrat printed an interview with Jackson who had recently returned from a trip to Philadelphia for the national convention of what were then called the Colored Masons.  Another newspaper reported that Jackson came originally from Troy and had joined the Masons there.

The Amsterdam paper’s interview took place at Jackson’s barber shop and he reportedly “talked rapidly away as he stropped his razor.”

Jackson said the convention was the largest ever because it celebrated the 100th anniversary of the creation in Boston of the first lodge of black Free Masons in America.

Jackson said, “(The convention) was marked by a grand parade in which 25 lodges were represented in a membership of 2,000 , comprising delegates from Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Mississippi, Virginia, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Ohio. 

In 1886 the Amsterdam paper reported “tonsorial artist Robert Jackson” was spending Sunday with friends in Minaville.  Jackson died in February 1893 and was about sixty.

Farquhar said, “According to my records he was married to Hannah Herod and they had at least five children.  One of their daughters, Agnes, died at the age of seven in 1882 due to meningitis.  Agnes, Hannah and Robert are all buried in Green Hill Cemetery, possibly along with a couple of other daughters.”

Farquhar and Judith Wellman have written “Uncovering the Underground Railroad: Abolitionism and African American Life in Montgomery County, N.Y. 1820-1890.”  It is available at Farquhar’s office at the Old Courthouse in Fonda. 

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Jerry Snyder talks about this year’s Historic Amsterdam League calendar focusing on that city’s vanished industries.  Plus Kelly Farquhar and Norm Bollen report on a recently found letter from a Revolutionary leader in the Mohawk Valley that makes reference to the Boston Tea Party.

Thursday, January 26, 2023

A submariner’s tale.

...and Friday Jerry Snyder again 

Friday, January 27, 2023-Episode 459-Jerry Snyder was one of the founders of Historic Amsterdam League, which focuses on the history of Amsterdam, N.Y.   

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Leader Herald

Make Us A Part Of Your Day

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This Sunday, January 29, 2023 at 2 pm. 

The discussion, moderated by Gazette-Recorder history columnist, podcaster and old radio guy Bob Cudmore. 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.

Monday, January 23, 2023-Story behind the story, Navy submarine captain John Donlon was a native of Amsterdam.

Tuesday, January 24, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette- Amsterdam barber was African American political leader

An Amsterdam barber, Robert A. Jackson, may have been active in the Underground Railroad and was an African American political leader in the late 1800s.

Wednesday, January 25, 2023-From the Archives-Episode 93, January 10, 2016-Jerry Snyder talks about this year’s Historic Amsterdam League calendar focusing on that city’s vanished industries.  Plus Kelly Farquhar and Norm Bollen report on a recently found letter from a Revolutionary leader in the Mohawk Valley that makes reference to the Boston Tea Party.

Thursday, January 26- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-A submariner’s tale.     

Friday, January 27, 2023-Episode 459-Jerry Snyder was one of the founders of Historic Amsterdam League, which focuses on the history of Amsterdam, N.Y.   

Navy captain was link to Amsterdam’s past

By Bob Cudmore

   Born in Amsterdam in 1927, John Donlon was a link to the history of his family and native city.  His father Hugh Donlon was a Recorder newspaper columnist and author of a landmark 1980 Amsterdam history book, “Annals of a Milltown”, and other historical publications.

   Hugh Donlon died at age 93 in 1989.  His son John died at his Connecticut home at age 95 on December 26, 2022.

   John had a remarkable career in the U.S. Navy where he became the captain of nuclear submarines.  He and his wife, the former Anita Snyder of Pennsylvania, raised seven children.  They had 28 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren.

   John spent his youth living at the Donlon family home on Kimball Street off Guy Park Avenue in Amsterdam during the Great Depression.  John’s mother was hospitalized in 1932 at the Montgomery County Tuberculosis Sanatorium atop Swart Hill Road in the town of Amsterdam. 

   Hugh Donlon visited her three or four times a week, climbing Swart Hill from the trolley stop on Route 5 as the family had no car.  His wife, Anna Frances Nadler Donlon, died in 1938.

   John was the second oldest of four brothers.  His three brothers-–Charles, Thomas, and Edward–predeceased him.  John wrote of his father, “Hugh truly raised his male quartet almost single-handedly.”

   Hugh had help from live in caretakers.  John wrote in an email, “Retired bachelor and namesake Uncle Hugh McGrail tided us over into the not-so-banner 1938.  Uncle Hughie couldn't boil water when he arrived; he became a great cook in a couple of weeks.  Surprisingly, he was marvelous around kids. We had fun every day! But even he faded in health and departed for Schenectady.

   “We got a full-time, no-nonsense, great cook, opinionated, stern and grandmotherly Sarah Barton of Hagaman in late 1938.  She stayed until 1946.”

   From an early age, John felt the call of the sea.  At nine, he became a Sea Scout.

   John’s childhood friends included George Tralka, Harold Langley, Donald Blonkowski and Lou Hage.  All attended Amsterdam’s Catholic high school, St. Mary’s.  Langley had a movie camera and the group made a horror film using City Hall as a stand in for a mental institution.

   The group hung out at Rapello’s Pharmacy or Kansas Restaurant downtown on East Main, and Brownie’s hot dog eatery or Wytrwal’s Furniture on Reid Hill.

   Young Donlon sang tenor in an acapella group that, according to a friend, could be heard “in occasionally raffish song” under Guy Park Avenue’s streetlights.

   Hugh Donlon, who had a side job as a church organist, had started work on a history book called “The Mohawk Valley” in 1932.  He typed the manuscript in a second floor office at the family home. 

   In the dedication, Donlon credited his sons, “Whose contribution to this book was undisturbed slumber through night hours while their father worked.”

   John Donlon wrote, “Those hours were generally from nine p.m. to two a.m. or later. He invariably arose at seven.” 

   John Donlon preserved his father’s Mohawk Valley manuscript written during the 1930s.  Hugh Donlon said the book covered from the Ice Age to 1940.

   Many publishers plus Union College and the State were approached but the manuscript remained in John’s possession unpublished until 2015.  Writer Dave Northrup edited the manuscript that year with John’s help and oversaw its publication.

   Northrup recalled the son's affection and respect for his father's efforts in preserving the history of the region dear to both, "In my communication with him about the project, John often said of his father, 'he was not the smartest man I ever knew, he was the best.' "

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, January 23, 2023

Leader Herald

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Next Sunday

The discussion, moderated by Gazette-Recorder history columnist, podcaster and old radio guy Bob Cudmore.

The Role of Female Doctors and Medical Professionals in Today’s Medicine will be the topic of an Amsterdam Reads panel discussion

Sunday, January 29, 2023 at 2 pm. 

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.

This week Jerry Snyder and Jerry Snyder

The Historians schedule for the new week is below The Navy Captian story...

Navy captain was link to Amsterdam’s past

By Bob Cudmore

   Born in Amsterdam in 1927, John Donlon was a link to the history of his family and native city.  His father Hugh Donlon was a Recorder newspaper columnist and author of a landmark 1980 Amsterdam history book, “Annals of a Milltown”, and other historical publications.

   Hugh Donlon died at age 93 in 1989.  His son John died at his Connecticut home at age 95 on December 26, 2022.

   John had a remarkable career in the U.S. Navy where he became the captain of nuclear submarines.  He and his wife, the former Anita Snyder of Pennsylvania, raised seven children.  They had 28 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren.

   John spent his youth living at the Donlon family home on Kimball Street off Guy Park Avenue in Amsterdam during the Great Depression.  John’s mother was hospitalized in 1932 at the Montgomery County Tuberculosis Sanatorium atop Swart Hill Road in the town of Amsterdam. 

   Hugh Donlon visited her three or four times a week, climbing Swart Hill from the trolley stop on Route 5 as the family had no car.  His wife, Anna Frances Nadler Donlon, died in 1938.

   John was the second oldest of four brothers.  His three brothers-–Charles, Thomas, and Edward–predeceased him.  John wrote of his father, “Hugh truly raised his male quartet almost single-handedly.”

   Hugh had help from live in caretakers.  John wrote in an email, “Retired bachelor and namesake Uncle Hugh McGrail tided us over into the not-so-banner 1938.  Uncle Hughie couldn't boil water when he arrived; he became a great cook in a couple of weeks.  Surprisingly, he was marvelous around kids. We had fun every day! But even he faded in health and departed for Schenectady.

   “We got a full-time, no-nonsense, great cook, opinionated, stern and grandmotherly Sarah Barton of Hagaman in late 1938.  She stayed until 1946.”

   From an early age, John felt the call of the sea.  At nine, he became a Sea Scout.

   John’s childhood friends included George Tralka, Harold Langley, Donald Blonkowski and Lou Hage.  All attended Amsterdam’s Catholic high school, St. Mary’s.  Langley had a movie camera and the group made a horror film using City Hall as a stand in for a mental institution.

   The group hung out at Rapello’s Pharmacy or Kansas Restaurant downtown on East Main, and Brownie’s hot dog eatery or Wytrwal’s Furniture on Reid Hill.

   Young Donlon sang tenor in an acapella group that, according to a friend, could be heard “in occasionally raffish song” under Guy Park Avenue’s streetlights.

   Hugh Donlon, who had a side job as a church organist, had started work on a history book called “The Mohawk Valley” in 1932.  He typed the manuscript in a second floor office at the family home. 

   In the dedication, Donlon credited his sons, “Whose contribution to this book was undisturbed slumber through night hours while their father worked.”

   John Donlon wrote, “Those hours were generally from nine p.m. to two a.m. or later. He invariably arose at seven.” 

   John Donlon preserved his father’s Mohawk Valley manuscript written during the 1930s.  Hugh Donlon said the book covered from the Ice Age to 1940.

   Many publishers plus Union College and the State were approached but the manuscript remained in John’s possession unpublished until 2015.  Writer Dave Northrup edited the manuscript that year with John’s help and oversaw its publication.

   Northrup recalled the son's affection and respect for his father's efforts in preserving the history of the region dear to both, "In my communication with him about the project, John often said of his father, 'he was not the smartest man I ever knew, he was the best.' "

Monday, January 23, 2023-Story behind the story, Navy submarine captain John Donlon was a native of Amsterdam.

Tuesday, January 24, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette- Amsterdam barber was African American political leader

Wednesday, January 25, 2023-From the Archives-Episode 93, January 10, 2016-Jerry Snyder talks about this year’s Historic Amsterdam League calendar focusing on that city’s vanished industries.  Plus Kelly Farquhar and Norm Bollen report on a recently found letter from a Revolutionary leader in the Mohawk Valley that makes reference to the Boston Tea Party.

Thursday, January 26- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-A submariner’s tale.     

Friday, January 27, 2023-Episode 459-Jerry Snyder was one of the founders of Historic Amsterdam League, which focuses on the history of Amsterdam, N.Y.   

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, January 22, 2023

Leader Herald

Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

The discussion, moderated by Gazette-Recorder history columnist and podcaster Bob Cudmore.

The Role of Female Doctors and Medical Professionals in Today’s Medicine will be the topic of an Amsterdam Reads panel discussion

Sunday, January 29, 2023 at 2 pm. 

...will be held in 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.

Episode 458-New York State Historian Devin Lander.  250th American independence anniversary coming in years ahead.

Today, Saturday, January 21, 2023 in The Daily Gazette e edition The Sanford Fire

https://dailygazette.com/

Sunday, January 22, 2023-Navy submarine captain John Donlon was a native of Amsterdam

Read the story here on The Historians

Born in Amsterdam in 1927, John Donlon was a link to the history of his family and native city.  His father Hugh Donlon was a Recorder newspaper columnist and author of a landmark 1980 Amsterdam history book, “Annals of a Milltown”, and other historical publications. 

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, January 21, 2023

Leader Herald

Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

The Role of Female Doctors and Medical Professionals in Today’s Medicine will be the topic of an Amsterdam Reads panel discussion on Sunday, January 29, 2023 at 2 pm. 

The discussion, moderated by Gazette-Recorder history columnist and podcaster Bob Cudmore, will be held in 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.

Death rode the wings of the wind

By Bob Cudmore

Three pioneer aviators, including a Gloversville native, died when their plane crashed into a buckwheat field near Rural Grove in the Montgomery County town of Root on January 8, 1928.

The Gloversville native who perished in the accident was Edward M. Pauley.  Born in 1895, Pauley served on the ground in World War I in the motor transport corps.  After the war, he became a pilot as a civilian then rejoined the U.S. Army Flying Corps, earning the rank of captain.  Captain Pauley married Marion Howarth of Johnstown. They had no children.  He was in the Army reserves when he died.

Pauley headed a company called Flyers, Incorporated, the first commercial air service based in Albany.  His firm, headquartered at the Ten Eyck Hotel, carried passengers and freight and flew racing editions of the Albany Journal newspaper to Saratoga Springs for the 1927 horse racing meet.  Albany Mayor John Boyd Thatcher mentioned Pauley’s name as the future superintendent of the almost-constructed Albany Airport.

On Sunday, January 8 veteran pilot Raymond Henries flew from Long Island to Albany on his way to Buffalo, delivering a new Fairchild monoplane.  The large single engine plane was to be based in Buffalo for Colonial Western Airways.  Henries had a passenger, former pilot George Benedict, then in his family’s clothing business in Illinois.

Pauley decided to fly with Henries and Benedict to Buffalo where two planes ordered by Flyers, Inc. were to be delivered.  Pauley planned to make arrangements to have his new planes flown to Albany.

Despite thick fog, the Fairchild monoplane left Westerlo Island airfield south of Albany, piloted by Henries, around 2:00 p.m.  Several hours later Colonial Western Airways reported the aircraft had not reached Buffalo.

WGY radio in Schenectady announced the plane was missing sometime after 6:00 p.m.  Telephone reports poured in from listeners.  Some heard what they thought was a crash about 3:00 p.m. near Rural Grove in the town of Root, on the south side of the Mohawk River between Fultonville and Canajoharie.  A Mrs. Quackenbush of Rural Grove reported she heard a crash and was convinced the plane had fallen.

Early Monday morning Sheriff Seeley Hodge formed a posse of about 30 men who began a ground search.  Searchers found the wreckage on Tuesday morning near a farm being worked by J.E. Bartlett off what is today Route 162, between Currytown and Middle Grove.  A plane from Schenectady Airport doing an aerial search saw the activity on the ground and landed on a nearby field.

Pilot Henries’s body had been thrown about 75 feet from the main wreckage.  The bodies of passengers Pauley and Benedict were found crushed inside the plane.

The Albany Evening News reported, “Death rode on the wings of the wind with the three missing aviators whose bodies were found on a farm hillside near Rural Grove today, strewn with wreckage of their big Fairchild monoplane.”

The crash investigation was hampered in the coming days by the arrival of what authorities estimated to be a total of three thousand to eight thousand gawkers and souvenir hunters.  Investigators could not find part of the instrument board of the plane.  It was located in the possession of a Gloversville businessman.

The cause of the crash was never pinned down.  The thick fog was likely a factor but there were reports from people on the ground who said they heard a plane’s engine overhead that seemed to be misfiring before the accident.

Captain Pauley was buried at Ferndale Cemetery in Johnstown.  His story was researched by his niece, Frances N. Burnham of Scotia, with the assistance of town of Root historian Bill Maring.

Friday, January 20, 2023

Episode 458-New York State Historian Devin Lander.  250th American independence anniversary coming in years ahead.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, January 19, 2023

Leader Herald

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History, Weather and Mohawk Valley News Headlines 

Today, tomorrow and the Weekend (this weekend print story-Navy submarine Captain John Donlon was a native of Amsterdam)

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Nick Bunker 

The story of the American Revolution told from the unique perspective of British Parliament and the streets of London, rather than that of the Colonies. 

Charting the three years prior to the war during which the British regime in America was already collapsing, Bunker shows how a lethal combination of politics and personalities led to a war that should never have been fought.

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Death rode the wings of the wind

The Gloversville native who perished in the accident was Edward M. Pauley.  Born in 1895, Pauley served on the ground in World War I in the motor transport corps.

Amsterdam Reads 2023 Kick-off event on Sunday, January 29th.

Bob Cudmore will moderate, more information posted next week

The latest from The Historians digital press  

This Friday, January 20, 2023

Episode 458-New York State Historian Devin Lander.  250th American independence anniversary coming in years ahead.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Leader Herald

Make Us A Part Of Your Day

https://www.leaderherald.com/

     This Sunday, January 22, 2023- Gazette Story posted on The Historians

   Navy submarine Captain John Donlon was a native of Amsterdam

Tuesday 

      The 1939 fire at the Sanford Stud Farm  by Bob Cudmore

A tragic event in Amsterdam’s history was the January 9, 1939 fire that killed 25 thoroughbred horses and did $200,000 damage at the Sanford Stud Farm outside the city limits on Route 30.  A police dog also died in the blaze.

Carpet mill executive Stephen Sanford started the farm, at first called Hurricana, in the 1870s.  His doctor advised Sanford that a farm might ease his stomach ulcer 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 in this enterprise 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. He had as many as 35 horses at a time. 

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

New York State outlawed betting in 1907 and racing stopped at Saratoga. Temporarily, the Sanfords sold most of their horses, according to Alex Robb in his book, “The Sanfords of Amsterdam.”

Stephen Sanford was blind the last five years of his life. He died on February 13, 1913 at age 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 many 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 two of John’s 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 Sanford died.

A group called the Friends of the Sanford Stud Farm has been working to restore what remains of the farm buildings. 

In 2003, retired Sanford jockey Louis F. Hildebrandt of Perth wrote a book about his horse riding exploits called “Rider’s Up.”  His son Sam Hildebrandt, the founder of the Friends organization, is out with a new book on the history of the horse farm, originally called Hurricana because of the strong winds that blow through its location on top of a hill.  The new book is called “Hurricana: Thoroughbred Dynasty, Amsterdam Landmark.”  It contains 193 photos from 32 different sources.

Sam Hildebrandt said one story about the disastrous 1939 fire is that it was started on purpose by a disgruntled worker, angered at the hazing that new farmhands were subjected to by old-timers.

However, research done by another volunteer with the Friends indicates 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.

Patrick Boles of the town of Amsterdam said newspaper accounts indicate exercise boy William H. Dougrey, 15, from Glens Falls started the fire by disposing of his lighted cigarette inside the barn.  Even if Dougrey had no intention of starting the blaze, Boles said that smoking was prohibited inside the Sanford 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 the Sanford farm after getting into some 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 sent to a state penal reformatory. 

Wednesday, January 18, 2023-From the Archives-Episode 76, August 30, 2015- Nick Bunker 

The story of the American Revolution told from the unique perspective of British Parliament and the streets of London, rather than that of the Colonies. 

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Death rode the wings of the wind

Three pioneer aviators, including a Gloversville native, died when their plane crashed into a buckwheat field near Rural Grove in the Montgomery County town of Root on January 8, 1928

Friday, January 20, 2023-Episode 458-New York State Historian Devin Lander.  250th American independence anniversary coming in years ahead.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, January 17, 2023

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