Amsterdam mourned city official in 1953

Alex Isabel was a champion of area sports

By Bob Cudmore

Amsterdam was shocked one Sunday morning in January, 1953 when city recreation superintendent Alex H. Isabel, 53, died suddenly of a heart attack at his Forest Avenue home. 

Isabel was also a Brooklyn Dodgers scout and basketball and baseball coach at St. Mary’s Institute at the time of his death.  Three years later, a Little League baseball field was dedicated in his honor, a field that still bears the family name on Upper Locust Avenue.

            “He was never sick a day in his life,” recalled Isabel’s son, Gerard, known as “Pup,” a nickname his father gave him.  The night before his death, Alex Isabel spoke at a dinner of the St. Agnello Club, an Italian-American organization in the West End where he spent much of his life.

            As were many West Enders, Isabel was born in Pisciotta, Italy.  He came to New York City at age six where he lived on Little Italy’s Cherry Street before his family settled in Amsterdam.           

Isabel’s athletic skills became apparent when he played baseball for Amsterdam High before World War I, getting an offer from the New York Giants.  Instead, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and suffered hearing loss while on board the battleship Michigan. 

After the war, Isabel finished high school and played baseball at St. Mary’s Institute.  He married Ann Murphy in 1923 and they had three children. 

Isabel played and coach baseball in the popular semi-professional leagues of the day.  He pitched for the Gloversville-Johnstown Twin Cities and played and managed the Ticonderoga team in the Northern League in 1925 and 1926.  He played baseball for teams including the Mohawk Mills Karnaks, Tonquas Tribe and the West End Athletic Club of Albany.

In 1940, Alex Isabel began coaching baseball at St. Mary’s, adding basketball duties a year later. 

He became acting recreation superintendent for the city in 1944 when superintendent S. Joseph Golden was serving in the Navy.  Golden returned but resigned shortly after the war.  Isabel became superintendent from 1946 until his death.

He spearheaded improvements at city playgrounds and led local baseball teams into national tournaments.  He made college possible for many youngsters and was lauded for his efforts in fighting juvenile delinquency by keeping youth busy with productive pursuits.  He brought in drama teacher Bert DeRose to begin a popular series of summer musicals.

As a scout for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Isabel scoured Upstate New York and parts of New England and Canada.  His best-known find was Johnny Podres of Witherbee, New York, who pitched for the Dodgers in the World Series in 1953.  

Brothers Guy, Hector and Alex were all involved in operation of Isabel’s Restaurant on West Main Street, although Guy and his wife Ida were the principal restaurateurs.  “Pup” Isabel, who was a waiter at Isabel’s, recalled that across from the restaurant on West Main Street in the old days was a public bath, next to a three-chair barbershop, candy store and a poolroom.  “Pup” said his father Alex was good at pool, too.  He was also a high scoring bowler. 

The week that Alex Isabel died, recreation activities halted in Amsterdam.  His funeral mass at St. Mary’s Church attracted a huge crowd of state and local dignitaries, a Brooklyn Dodgers delegation, St. Mary’s students and 115 boys from the Little League and Little-Bigger League. 

At the 1956 dedication of Alex Isabel Memorial Field, committee chairman Nicholas DeCross stated:  “It is hoped that the boys who play on this field will pattern themselves after Alex and attempt to pass on to their boys what he tried to instill in those who played for him.”

Wednesday, January 11, 2023-Our second Highlights Podcast of 2021 features Jim Richmond on Saratoga County history, Mike Hauser on Fulton County sports, Sarah Patten on women spies, Thruway questions from Robert Burns, John Warren on motorization of the Adirondack Park, Jim Kaplan on New York City’s South Street Seaport and Roland Vinyard on West Virginia caver Pete Hauer.

Thursday, January 12-The Daily Gazette-Exhibit told of disaster, gallows, justice

More than 2,000 people died on May 31, 1889, when the South Fork Dam collapsed at Lake Conemaugh sending a wall of water and debris into Johnstown, Pennsylvania, already experiencing flooding from the Little Conemaugh and Stony Creek rivers. 

Friday, January 13, 2023

....The hotel became the college

Episode 457-Historian and Daily Gazette reporter Bill Buell on Schenectady in the 1920s

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, January 10, 2023

...again not much weather to report

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Monday, January 9, 2023-Story behind the story, Amsterdam Ukrainians, Lafayette and other 2022 topics.

Tuesday, January 10, 2023-The sudden death of Amsterdam sportsman Alex Isabel 

Amsterdam was shocked one Sunday morning in January, 1953 when city recreation superintendent Alex H. Isabel, 53, died suddenly of a heart attack at his Forest Avenue home. 

Isabel was also a Brooklyn Dodgers scout and basketball and baseball coach at St. Mary’s Institute at the time of his death. 

Wednesday, January 11, 2023-Our second Highlights Podcast of 2021 features Jim Richmond on Saratoga County history, Mike Hauser on Fulton County sports, Sarah Patten on women spies, Thruway questions from Robert Burns, John Warren on motorization of the Adirondack Park, Jim Kaplan on New York City’s South Street Seaport and Roland Vinyard on West Virginia caver Pete Hauer.

Thursday, January 12-The Daily Gazette-Exhibit told of disaster, gallows, justice

Friday, January 13, 2023

Episode 457-Historian and Daily Gazette reporter Bill Buell on Schenectady in the 1920s

Think Summer in The Mohawk Valley and East/West

Cycle the Erie Canal Bike Tour

Photo:Dylan Carey

https://www.ptny.org/cycle-the-erie-canal/annual-bike-tour

July 9-16 2023

The old courthouse, Ukrainians, Lafayette and other 2022 topics

By Bob Cudmore

   The Fulton County Courthouse in Johnstown was one of many topics among Focus on History columns in 2022.

   Judge Robert P. Best published the booklet “Everything West of Albany in 1772.”  The Johnstown courthouse was built in 1772 when New York State was still a British colony.  The structure at 223 West Main Street is the oldest existing courthouse in the state. 

   Best, who retired in 2006, said, “It (looked) like a movie scene from an old movie of what a courthouse looks like and it still does.”

   What’s it like to be the boss’s son?  Rod Correll took up that question in a column about his memoir, “Learning to Be a Leatherman-A Rite of Passage.”

   Rod, who lived some years in Gloversville, was descended from two important figures in the leather industry, his grandfather Herman Loewenstein and his father

Rudy Correll.

   Another Focus on History traced the connection between Amsterdam and singer Jeff Buckley, who recorded the most popular version of Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen’s anthem “Hallelujah” in 1994.  

   Jeff Buckley’s father was musician Tim Buckley III who spent his early years in Amsterdam and Fort Johnson.

   Amsterdam’s Ukrainian community was chronicled in stories about Amsterdam’s Ukrainian Church, St. Nicholas on Pulaski Street, and late local Ukrainian activist Myron Swidersky.  Ukrainian immigrant Peter Segen married my mother’s sister.

   Amsterdam Fire Department Battalion Chief John Michael Mancini, who died during 2022, added many anecdotes to our local history stories. 

   Mancini described one fire in which he almost lost his life.  That nasty blaze destroyed the Speedline Warehouse on Front Street in the 1990s.  An overhead door had burned off giving Mancini and other firefighters access to the building.  As they moved forward, a propane tank exploded.

   “Three more steps and I would have got it,” Mancini said.  The blaze was so intense that burning debris ignited nearby buildings.  Mancini said the cause was arson.  The case took four years to prosecute but a conviction was finally secured. 

   A national family history television show focused on a TV celebrity’s Mohawk Valley ancestors in 2022.

   Actor Nick Offerman and a production crew from NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” recorded interviews at the Old Courthouse in Fonda, home to Montgomery County’s history and genealogical collections, and the Johnstown Public Library, in the city founded by British colonial leader Sir William Johnson.

Researchers traced Offerman’s roots to a Mohawk Valley couple, Bartholomew and Eva Pickard and their grandson, Joseph Mabee.

   The Marquis de Lafayette visited Schoharie Crossing in Fort Hunter by canal boat in 1825 and had a reunion with two Mohawk Valley patriots, Thomas Sammons and his son Simeon.

   According to historian and attorney Jim Kaplan there are plans to commemorate Lafayette’s American tour to mark its 200th anniversary in 2024 and 2025.

      The Marquis was a wealthy French aristocrat whose father had been killed by the British, when young Lafayette was only two years old.  

   Lafayette fought alongside George Washington during the American Revolution.  Lafayette played a key role in the British defeat at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781.

   And according to another column, outdoorsman, historian and educator Donald R. Williams of Gloversville owes a lot to his grandfather, John Whitman.

   “He was a carpenter, Adirondack guide and farmer up in the Adirondacks,” Williams said. “And I inherited all my love of the Adirondacks and my love of tools and all those things from my grandfather.”

   Williams’ latest book is a hefty volume with many pictures called “Grandfather’s Tool Chest.”

   One tool looks like a tennis racquet holding a u-shaped piece of cedar.  It was used to fluff up feather beds.

Not much January weather in the weather this Week 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, January 9, 2023

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The old courthouse, Ukrainians, Lafayette and other 2022 topics

By Bob Cudmore

   The Fulton County Courthouse in Johnstown was one of many topics among Focus on History columns in 2022.

   Judge Robert P. Best published the booklet “Everything West of Albany in 1772.”  The Johnstown courthouse was built in 1772 when New York State was still a British colony.  The structure at 223 West Main Street is the oldest existing courthouse in the state. 

   Best, who retired in 2006, said, “It (looked) like a movie scene from an old movie of what a courthouse looks like and it still does.”

   What’s it like to be the boss’s son?  Rod Correll took up that question in a column about his memoir, “Learning to Be a Leatherman-A Rite of Passage.”

   Rod, who lived some years in Gloversville, was descended from two important figures in the leather industry, his grandfather Herman Loewenstein and his father

Rudy Correll.

   Another Focus on History traced the connection between Amsterdam and singer Jeff Buckley, who recorded the most popular version of Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen’s anthem “Hallelujah” in 1994.  

   Jeff Buckley’s father was musician Tim Buckley III who spent his early years in Amsterdam and Fort Johnson.

   Amsterdam’s Ukrainian community was chronicled in stories about Amsterdam’s Ukrainian Church, St. Nicholas on Pulaski Street, and late local Ukrainian activist Myron Swidersky.  Ukrainian immigrant Peter Segen married my mother’s sister.

   Amsterdam Fire Department Battalion Chief John Michael Mancini, who died during 2022, added many anecdotes to our local history stories. 

   Mancini described one fire in which he almost lost his life.  That nasty blaze destroyed the Speedline Warehouse on Front Street in the 1990s.  An overhead door had burned off giving Mancini and other firefighters access to the building.  As they moved forward, a propane tank exploded.

   “Three more steps and I would have got it,” Mancini said.  The blaze was so intense that burning debris ignited nearby buildings.  Mancini said the cause was arson.  The case took four years to prosecute but a conviction was finally secured. 

   A national family history television show focused on a TV celebrity’s Mohawk Valley ancestors in 2022.

   Actor Nick Offerman and a production crew from NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” recorded interviews at the Old Courthouse in Fonda, home to Montgomery County’s history and genealogical collections, and the Johnstown Public Library, in the city founded by British colonial leader Sir William Johnson.

Researchers traced Offerman’s roots to a Mohawk Valley couple, Bartholomew and Eva Pickard and their grandson, Joseph Mabee.

   The Marquis de Lafayette visited Schoharie Crossing in Fort Hunter by canal boat in 1825 and had a reunion with two Mohawk Valley patriots, Thomas Sammons and his son Simeon.

   According to historian and attorney Jim Kaplan there are plans to commemorate Lafayette’s American tour to mark its 200th anniversary in 2024 and 2025.

      The Marquis was a wealthy French aristocrat whose father had been killed by the British, when young Lafayette was only two years old.  

   Lafayette fought alongside George Washington during the American Revolution.  Lafayette played a key role in the British defeat at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781.

   And according to another column, outdoorsman, historian and educator Donald R. Williams of Gloversville owes a lot to his grandfather, John Whitman.

   “He was a carpenter, Adirondack guide and farmer up in the Adirondacks,” Williams said. “And I inherited all my love of the Adirondacks and my love of tools and all those things from my grandfather.”

   Williams’ latest book is a hefty volume with many pictures called “Grandfather’s Tool Chest.”

   One tool looks like a tennis racquet holding a u-shaped piece of cedar.  It was used to fluff up feather beds. 

Monday, January 9, 2023-Story behind the story, Amsterdam Ukrainians, Lafayette and other 2022 topics.

Tuesday, January 10, 2023-The sudden death of Amsterdam sportsman Alex Isabel 

Wednesday, January 11, 2023-Our second Highlights Podcast of 2021 features Jim Richmond on Saratoga County history, Mike Hauser on Fulton County sports, Sarah Patten on women spies, Thruway questions from Robert Burns, John Warren on motorization of the Adirondack Park, Jim Kaplan on New York City’s South Street Seaport and Roland Vinyard on West Virginia caver Pete Hauer.

Thursday, January 12-The Daily Gazette-Exhibit told of disaster, gallows, justice

Friday, January 13, 2023

Episode 457-Historian and Daily Gazette reporter Bill Buell on Schenectady in the 1920s

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, January 8, 2023

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Saturday January 7, 2023-Historian Peter Betz explores various theories on the origin of the name of the Montgomery County hamlet of Tribes Hill.  He also recounts horse runaway stories from Fulton County.

The Erie Canal

https://www.eriecanal.org/Schoharie.html

Sunday, January 8, 2023

The old courthouse, Amsterdam Ukrainians, Lafayette and other 2022 topics

Another Focus on History traced the connection between Amsterdam and singer Jeff Buckley, who recorded the most popular version of Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen’s anthem “Hallelujah” in 1994.  

The Old Courthouse "The Podcast"

The Historians making digital hay while the sunshines

January

Friday, January 13, 2023-Episode 457-Historian and Daily Gazette reporter Bill Buell on Schenectady in the 1920s.  Proctor’s Theatre, Hotel Van Curler, Charles Steinmetz, WGY and more.

Friday, January 20, 2023-Episode 458-New York State Historian Devin Lander on historical plans for 2023.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, January 7, 2023

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1888 blizzard impacted the living and the dead

By Bob Cudmore

   The blizzard of 1888 disrupted the lives of people in Montgomery County along with the rest of the northeastern United States.

   The March storm played a role in the funeral of Mrs. Robert Hartley in West Galway and West Charlton near Amsterdam.

   In 1860, Amsterdam woodworker Isaac Shuler had opened a shop to make cabinets and furniture. Soon Shuler was making coffins and after the Civil War, he began offering undertaking services.

   After Shuler died, W. Max Reid operated the undertaking business.  Reid wrote a 1901 history book, “The Mohawk Valley.” 

   According to a newspaper accounts Mrs. Hartley’s funeral service was held at the Presbyterian Church in West Galway as the blizzard raged on Monday, March 12, 1888.  H.O. Wilkie was the undertaker for the Shuler funeral home.

   Wilkie had 26 men with him who opened the roads as a procession set out for the West Charlton cemetery.  They traveled two miles reaching the farm of John Cunning but could go no farther.  The corpse was left at the Cunning farm.

   Snow was said to be as high as the backs of the horses as Wilkie and the driver of the team pulling the hearse, Wells Johnson, trekked back to Amsterdam.

   No road could be seen and Johnson walked ahead of the team to find the road.  Wilkie was thrown from the seat of the hearse several times when they hit potholes.  The trip took four hours.  Several mourners were stranded for several days at the West Galway church.

   Burtiss Deal, born in 1882 in Amsterdam, was living with his parents in West Galway in 1888.  His father was operating a textile mill there.

   The snowstorm and the birth of Deal’s younger brother Howard occurred simultaneously. The doctor was marooned with the Deals for several days until the roads were cleared.  Deal was elected mayor of Amsterdam in 1947 and served four, two-year terms.

  The 1888 storm dealt a heavy blow to the railroads.  A cattle train was stalled between Amsterdam and Tribes Hill.  Dead cattle had to be removed from the cars.  Passenger and freight trains were stalled in Amsterdam on the north and south sides of the Mohawk River. 

   Conductor Mason of train 52 on the south side of the river had a big crew and, according to a published account, “Attended to the wants and comforts of his passengers in first class style.  The jovial conductor had each foot incased in a canvas bag and presented a comical sight walking around in his improvised snow shoes.”

   One reporter wrote, “Mrs. Cole, the New York Central ticket agent, was besieged with questions from belated travelers, but answered every one with a kind word and a smile.”

   The wind was described as being “almost a cyclone at times.”  As far as the eye could see there was four feet of snow.

   Charles Yund, a saloon keeper on Amsterdam’s South Side, stuck a large flag in a snow pile which completely covered one of his entrances.  A reporter wrote, “It is intended to notify customers that he is not entirely buried.”

   On some city streets where the snow was shoveled, the banks on either side were on a level with the second stories of the houses.  Tunnels through the snow were common sights.  Citizens were urged to dig out fire hydrants.

   There was at least one old timer who was not impressed with the 1888 storm.  Stephen R. Voorhees told a reporter that in the winter of 1836 a snow storm had visited the region which was more severe. It snowed steadily, he said, for three days and three nights.

Going into the Weekend

Friday, January 6, 2023

Afoot tomorrow

Episode 456

The historic Fulton County courthouse, Ukrainians who settled in Amsterdam, Lafayette in Fort Hunter and other 2022 topics from Bob Cudmore’s Focus on History columns in the Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder.

Saturday January 7, 2023-Historian Peter Betz explores various theories on the origin of the name of the Montgomery County hamlet of Tribes Hill.  He also recounts horse runaway stories from Fulton County.

Sunday, January 8, 2023- The old courthouse, Amsterdam Ukrainians, Lafayette and other 2022 topics

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, January 5, 2023

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Dave Northrup is editor of Hugh Donlon’s “The Mohawk Valley.”   Written during the 1930’s when he was a reporter and columnist for the Amsterdam Evening Recorder, “The Mohawk Valley” is Donlon’s history of his native region from the end of the ice age to 1940.

...from The Daily Gazette

Hugh Donlon had started work on a book called “The Mohawk Valley” in 1932. He used one week of his two-week annual vacations to do research at valley libraries and archives. Home research was done at the dining room table. He typed the manuscript in a second floor office and bedroom at the family home, 13 Kimball St.

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

Thursday, January 5, 2023

The blizzard of 1888

The blizzard of 1888 disrupted the lives of people in Montgomery County along with the rest of the northeastern United States.

   The March storm played a role in the funeral of Mrs. Robert Hartley in West Galway and West Charlton near Amsterdam.

Friday, January 6, 2023

Episode 456-The historic Fulton County courthouse, Ukrainians who settled in Amsterdam, Lafayette in Fort Hunter and other 2022 topics from Bob Cudmore’s Focus on History columns in the Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, January 4, 2023

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Bohlke and his mother Genevieve stayed home in Scotch Church to make sure the furnace kept working.  His father, Harley Bohlke, stayed in Amsterdam with an aunt, Elizabeth Folmsbee on Guy Park Avenue, as he had to operate his business, Mohawk Cleaners & Dyers, on the old Cedar Street.   

Winter of 1958

By Bob Cudmore

Ralph Bohlke of Ballston Spa has vivid memories of the February 1958 snowstorm that isolated rural Mohawk Valley families for two weeks or more.  For four days a U.S. Army helicopter was used to evacuate isolated families and bring in food, fuel and medicine to Charleston and other towns. 

Bohlke lived on the border between Princetown and the town of Florida in the hamlet of Scotch Church.  The hamlet was named for Scottish settlers who came there at the end of the Revolutionary War and built a Presbyterian Church.  A cemetery near the former church has gravestones dating back to 1802, some of them for Revolutionary War soldiers.

Bohlke was 13 years old in 1958.  Snowed in for seven days, relief arrived in the form of a Schenectady County plow that eventually got to Bohlke’s home on Route 160.  That evening, a Sunday, produced another big snowfall and they were snowed in for another seven days.  Relief finally came about day sixteen from a town of Florida plow. 

Bohlke wrote, “The snow was almost even with the telephone lines in Scotch Church because I remember touching them with my hand in front of the church.

“I remember that there was so much blowing snow that it was the only time in my life that I could not get out the front or back door.  There was even a porch on the front door, but the snow was still blown up against the door so we couldn’t get outdoors.  We had a wood shed attached to the back of the house with a dog door.  I climbed out of the dog door to get outside.”

Bohlke and his mother Genevieve stayed home in Scotch Church to make sure the furnace kept working.  His father, Harley Bohlke, stayed in Amsterdam with an aunt, Elizabeth Folmsbee on Guy Park Avenue, as he had to operate his business, Mohawk Cleaners & Dyers, on the old Cedar Street.   

Bohlke wrote, “I remember digging a tunnel out to the road in the driveway.  When my father came home after the two weeks, he had a black bear hat on and when I first saw it I wasn’t sure who or what was coming through that tunnel.  Fortunately it was my father with groceries in both arms.

“We had at least six feet of snow in our driveway except for a small area that was cleared out by the wind.  My father and I spent a half day with our tractor and a scoop.  We only got about 50 feet cleaned out and decided it would take us two more days to get to the road. “

Bohlke’s father called a friend at Rotterdam Septic in Rotterdam Junction to come with a front end loader to clear out the driveway.   

Bohlke said, “As kids, we loved the two weeks off.  We played basketball in Aucompaugh’s barn and did a lot of tobogganing.  We would go right over apple trees, going airborne, and crash into the snow.  Since there was so much snow, we would just go right into the snow and get buried.  You could not sleigh ride as the snow was too powdery and too deep.  Those were the days.”

There were about 100 rescues in rural Montgomery County in February 1958.  Grateful families provided plow operators with coffee and sandwiches and even full meals.  Some farmers had to dump their spoiling supplies of milk.  Amsterdam city schools closed for a week.

The spring of 1958 brought major flooding along the Mohawk River. After that, the Army Corps of Engineers built retaining walls along the south side of the river in Amsterdam.

Wednesday, January 4, 2023-Dave Northrup is editor of Hugh Donlon’s “The Mohawk Valley.”   Written during the 1930’s when he was a reporter and columnist for the Amsterdam Evening Recorder, “The Mohawk Valley” is Donlon’s history of his native region from the end of the ice age to 1940.

...from The Daily Gazette

The deck was stacked against reporter and historian Hugh P. Donlon of Amsterdam in the 1930s. Widowed twice, Donlon raised four boys.

Born in Amsterdam in 1896, Donlon’s first memory was of his father’s grocery store at Market and Division Streets. His first job was as a page for the city Common Council.

Historian Bob Going said Donlon met his first wife, Teresa Baier, in 1914 as she sold tickets at the grand opening of Crescent Park, today’s Shuttleworth Park. Teresa died in 1921 after one year of marriage while giving birth to their son Charles.

Donlon and Anna Frances Nadler married in 1924, the year after her graduation from high school. Three more sons arrived at yearly intervals starting in 1928: John, Thomas and Edward.

Donlon became a reporter at the Amsterdam Recorder in 1930 and started writing his Main Street column in 1931. His first history book came out that year, “The Story of Auriesville,” the Mohawk Valley’s famous Catholic Shrine.

Thursday, January 5, 2023 The blizzard of 1888

Friday, January 6, 2023-Episode 456-The historic Fulton County courthouse, Ukrainians who settled in Amsterdam, Lafayette in Fort Hunter and other 2022 topics from Bob Cudmore’s Focus on History columns in the Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder.

Thanks to your donations The Historians Podcast fund drive has exceeded our $6000 yearly goal in 2022!  The current total is $6455.  You may still 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.  Thank you for keeping Historians Podcast online and on Amsterdam and Johnstown Radio, as well as Public Radio Albany WMHT89.1FM RISE

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, January 3, 2023

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When I was young, we went to a candlelight service Christmas Eve at First Methodist Church on Division Street, torn down for urban renewal in 1973.  I was always impressed that the choir marched in holding hymnbooks and candles while singing.  No one ever tripped and started a fire.

She is now sending Christmas gifts

By Bob Cudmore 

January 1, 2023

   My grandmother, Margaret Cook, was a widow with three small children in Randall during World War I, supporting her family by feeding soldiers who guarded Lock 13 on the Barge Canal against German saboteurs.

   One of the soldiers was Private William J. Allen of Fonda who told Saturday Globe newspaper, “(Margaret) has been cook for the boys at Yosts (across the river from Randall) since the war broke out and 14 of ‘her boys’ are in France and seven more are in training camps. She has mothered them all and the boys look to her for smiles and other necessities as well as for their meals.

   “The boys in France who have boarded with her she does not forget but sends them cigarettes or money to buy them. She is now sending Christmas gifts.”

   Were snowbanks bigger when we were younger?  There could have been more snow.  Other old timers have told me though that years ago the snow was plowed, but not removed.

   During the 1940s, Amsterdam native Richard Ellers said the snow crunched underfoot, “That crunch is linked in my memory to walking to Christmas midnight Mass at St. Michael’s Church from our home, a flat on East Main Street downtown.”

   In his upstairs flat, Ellers could hear a Salvation Army bell ringer on the street below, “There was only single pane glass on the windows.  I also can still hear the clink-clink-clink of snow chains on cars driving below.  Occasionally every third or fourth clink would be counter pointed with a double thunk, which was the sound of the ends of a broken chain slapping the underside of a fender.”

   Shirley Spurles Baroody spent 11 years of her childhood at the Children’s Home, an orphanage at 81 Guy Park Avenue in Amsterdam.  The home closed in 1957.

   In December, the matrons at Children’s Home asked each child for a list of three gifts wanted for Christmas.  Baroody remembered getting paper dolls and white socks.  The women’s clubs of Amsterdam put on a Christmas party every year for the home. 

   Jacki Vogel’s parents, Alphonso and Catherine D'Alessandro, owned the Gift & Hobby Shop at Lark and East Main Street in Amsterdam, “I vividly remember Christmas Eves when others were gathering to celebrate the holiday.  My dad would still be in the store, awaiting people coming to pick up their layaways. They always went the extra mile to try and locate a special toy that someone would want for a child.”

   Amsterdam native Donald Isburgh recalled Christmas Eve services at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church on Division Street, “This was in the years before other local churches had their own Christmas Eve services, and the church was so crowded that the ushers had to set up extra chairs in the center aisle to accommodate everyone.”

   When I was young, we went to a candlelight service Christmas Eve at First Methodist Church on Division Street, torn down for urban renewal in 1973.  I was always impressed that the choir marched in holding hymnbooks and candles while singing.  No one ever tripped and started a fire.

   My family used a machine called the Recordio to make 78 rpm discs on Christmas to send to my Aunt Winnie and Uncle Al in Florida.  Dinner was always turkey and always good and, after visiting Aunt Pansy, Uncle Percy and their three sons, we came back home and ate yet another meal with Aunts Gladys and Vera.

   The Recordio made the move when our family relocated to Amsterdam’s Peter Lane in 1957.  At some point, unfortunately, our machine was discarded along with our Recordio discs.

Monday, January 2, 2023-Story behind the story, Christmas memories  column 2.

Tuesday, January 3, 2023 The winter of 1958  

Wednesday, January 4, 2023-Dave Northrup is editor of Hugh Donlon’s “The Mohawk Valley.”   Written during the 1930’s when he was a reporter and columnist for the Amsterdam Evening Recorder, “The Mohawk Valley” is Donlon’s history of his native region from the end of the ice age to 1940. 

Thursday, January 5, 2023 The blizzard of 1888

Friday, January 6, 2023-Episode 456-The historic Fulton County courthouse, Ukrainians who settled in Amsterdam, Lafayette in Fort Hunter and other 2022 topics from Bob Cudmore’s Focus on History columns in the Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, January 1, 2022

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Charles Gehring’s life work has been to translate Old Dutch language documents from the 17th century New Netherland colony in New York, New Jersey and Delaware.

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Orange-Records-1654-1679-Charles-Gehring/dp/0815632320/ref=sr_1_7?crid=1BX94XB8VQYP0&keywords=Charles+Gehring&qid=1672486092&sprefix=charles+gehring%2Caps%2C95&sr=8-7&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.006c50ae-5d4c-4777-9bc0-4513d670b6bc

The records from 1654 to 1679 are
translated from the original Dutch.
This is part of our New Netherland
Documents Series.

  Christmas column 2, tomorrow Sunday, January 1, 2023

Bob Cudmore

My grandmother, Margaret Cook, was a widow with three small children in Randall during World War I, supporting her family by feeding soldiers who guarded Lock 13 on the Barge Canal against German saboteurs.

Coming in January on The Historians a conversation with Jerry Snyder "HAL"

Buddy Levy Episode #455

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, December 31, 2022

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