The Historians

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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If your coming home to The Mohawk Valley for the new year...

Jacob Snell: a big man at turn of the century

GOP politician occupied many positions by Bob Cudmore

Jacob Snell was a large man.  Snell also loomed large in politics in Montgomery County and New York State in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  When he died, newspapers called him “one of the best known Republicans in the state.”

Boss Snell’s girth made him an easy target for political cartoonists.  A New York Journal cartoon in 1901 showed a seated Snell with a diamond stickpin on his tie.  The caption said: “Jacob Snell, whose diamond looks him square in the face.”

Snell’s name came up in an email from Peter Betz, professor emeritus at Fulton-Montgomery Community College, who thought that Snell might have been the political operative indirectly attacked by a Democratic newspaper in Amsterdam in 1889 that was the subject of a previous column.  A perusal of a scrapbook at the Montgomery County Department of History and Archives and conversation with Fonda village historian Volkert Veeder led to some fascinating information but no confirmation of the connection to the 1889 Amsterdam article. 

According to newspaper obituaries, Jacob Snell was born in Stone Arabia in the Town of Palatine in 1847.and lived on a farm with his parents until about 1870 when he moved to Fonda.  While in Palatine, he was elected supervisor and town clerk running as a Republican in a Democratic town.  Two of his ancestors—an earlier Jacob and an Alexander Snell—had been elected county sheriff.  Jacob Snell ran for sheriff in 1884 and lost but was elected in 1886, serving three years.  He also served as chair of the Republican county committee, was a state committeeman and president of the village of Fonda.

He was superintendent of a section of the Erie Canal for a time.  He had a company that did roadwork and was president of Mohawk Valley Broom Company of Fonda.  He owned a downtown hotel in Fonda, later known as the Hotel Roy.  He was president of the County Agricultural Society for two years.

In 1904, Governor Benjamin Odell named Snell the warden of the Napanoch reformatory in Ulster County.  Snell had wanted the post of warden at Dannemora prison but didn’t get the job.

At the age of 58, Snell died at the reformatory on December 22nd, 1905.

“An abdominal abscess and acute kidney disease, surgical treatment of which was not practicable because of his immense girth, were the primary causes of his death,” wrote the Schenectady Union.

There is an oft repeated story that when Snell died, the door of the room where he perished had to be enlarged to get his body out.

          Amsterdam’s Democratic paper, the Morning Sentinel, came to Republican Snell’s defense on the subject of his size.  The Little Falls Times reported that Snell weighed 500 pounds and that 12 men were needed to carry his casket.   The Sentinel scoffed at the Times report, saying Snell did not even weigh 400 pounds and that “six small men”: had no trouble handling the casket. 

At the funeral in Fonda, Rev. Washington Frothingham paid tribute to Snell’s Revolutionary War ancestors, saying seven of them had given their lives for their country.  After the funeral, Snell’s body was taken by train for burial in the Canajoharie Falls Cemetery.  He had married Nancy Nellis of Palatine in 1867 and they had two sons and three daughters.

          The Canajoharie Courier editorialized that Boss Snell was “unceasing and unrelenting” on behalf of the Republican Party: “A campaign once begun was waged until the polls were closed on election day, so in case of a narrow defeat he never felt the chagrin that he had not made his best and most ardent fight.”

Buddy Levy

Friday, December 30, 2022

Episode 455-Buddy Levy author of Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic (1913) Voyage of the Karluk.  Levy, who lives in Idaho, is a go-to author for Arctic history.

Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again.

Saturday, December 31, 2022-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.  Gehring is Director of the New Netherland Research Center at the New York State Education Department in Albany.

2023 

Sunday, January 1

Christmas column 2

   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.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, December 29, 2022

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Historians schedule January 2023 includes Bill Buell- Daily Gazette, Devin Lander New York State Historian and Jerry Snyder with more Amsterdam, New York history

This Sunday, January 1, 2023- Christmas column 2

Mohawk Valley History on the WWW and Radio

$75.00 to Go to reach $6,500.00 

  You may still donate online at www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or send a check(via the good people at The U.S. Postal Service, we need a better word than overworked) made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. 

Wednesday

John Sweet is author of “The Sewing Girl’s Tale,” the story of the first published rape trial in American history.  Sweet researched Lanah Sawyer’s decision to charge an upper class man named Henry Bedlow with rape, leading to a courtroom drama, riots in the streets, and public debate over class privilege.  Sweet is a professor at the University of North Carolina.

Thursday, December 29, 2022

Politician Jacob Snell of Montgomery County 

Snell’s name came up in an email from Peter Betz, professor emeritus at Fulton-Montgomery Community College, who thought that Snell might have been the political operative indirectly attacked by a Democratic newspaper in Amsterdam in 1889 that was the subject of a previous column. 

Friday, December 30, 2022

Episode 455-Buddy Levy author of Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic (1913) Voyage of the Karluk.  Levy, who lives in Idaho, is a go-to author for Arctic history.

Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, December 28, 2022

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According to one of her grandchildren, Libby was a large woman who received her nickname when she knocked down a man who had used an ethnic slur about Italians. “The next time you see me, you bow,” Libby told the fallen man, leading him to refer to her as Queen Libby or Queen Lib.

The Historians Go Fund Me

Historians schedule January 2023 includes Bill Buell- Daily Gazette, Devin Lander New York State Historian and Jerry Snyder with more Amsterdam, New York history... Thanks to your Go Fund Me Historians donations 

Mohawk Valley History on the Internet and Radio

$75.00 to Go to reach $6,500.00 and that's a 30 for the year!

  You may still donate online at www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or send a check(via the good people at The U.S. Postal Service, we need a better word than overworked) made out to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302. 

An Italian immigrant was the queen of Fonda

By Bob Cudmore

People in Fonda called her Queen Libby. A formidable woman from Italy, Queen Libby literally stopped a train, saved a man from the electric chair and became a major property owner in Fonda.

Elizabeth Luciano was born in Pietremalara near Naples, Italy in 1872. She came to America alone when she was 15 and settled in Fonda to be near relatives who lived in Johnstown. She married another Italian immigrant, James Cassell. They had three children before Cassell died at the age of 33. Libby then married Alfonso Mancini, who worked for the railroad, and had four more children. Libby and Alfonso returned to Italy for a time where Alfonso was a jailor. Libby returned to America by herself and Alfonso eventually followed her back to America.

According to one of her grandchildren, Libby was a large woman who received her nickname when she knocked down a man who had used an ethnic slur about Italians. “The next time you see me, you bow,” Libby told the fallen man, leading him to refer to her as Queen Libby or Queen Lib.

Queen Libby ran a boarding house and grocery store in the west end of Fonda, where she fed, housed and cared for Italian immigrants who worked on the railroad. She had a good head for business and purchased 16 two family houses in the village. Patsy Cassell, one of Libby’s sons, ran a popular Fonda tavern called Patsy’s for many years.

In 1923, one of Libby’s daughters, Eva Mancini Pepe, was about to give birth to her first child. Eva had married Ralph Pepe, whose father Salvatore had founded Pepe’s Bakery, still a family business on Amsterdam’s South Side.

According to a clipping from The Recorder from January 20th of 1923, Libby was informed by telephone that her daughter was about to have a rare Caesarean section at St. Mary’s Hospital in Amsterdam.

Libby secured a red flag at the Fonda train station and when an express came ‘thundering in its usual way; she waved the red flag, convincing the engineer to stop the train and take her to Amsterdam. Arriving at the hospital, she charged into the operating room. Libby also made a phone call to the New York Central Railroad and demanded that the next possible train stop in Fonda to take her husband to Amsterdam.

The headline from the newspaper clipping reads: “Flags train to reach daughter as stork comes: Fonda woman bossed the whole New York Central Railroad but got to Amsterdam hospital on time.”

The child born that day was Vincenza Pepe, who passed away in 2001. Eva Pepe had seven children and the child she bore in 1924 is Salvatore Pepe of Amsterdam, who has provided information for this story.

“Queen Libby was strong-minded, tough but a gentle grandmother,” Pepe said, recalling that Libby gave quarters to her grandchildren.

Ann Nardick Sherman of Amsterdam also claims Queen Libby as a grandmother. Sherman’s mother was Constance Cassell, one of the children from Libby’s first marriage.

According to Sherman, Libby was an interpreter for Italians who could not speak English who were brought before the court in Fonda. Libby once saved an innocent man from the electric chair. Libby called Italy where the real murderer had fled and had him sent back to the United States for trial. Governor Franklin Roosevelt was so impressed that he visited Fonda to commend Libby and a parade was held in her honor.

Queen Libby died in 1938 and her grandchildren say her funeral was the biggest funeral ever seen in Fonda.

A name from History we don't know, but we use his product all the time.

Charles Martin Hall died on December 27, 1914 was an American inventor and chemist. Best known for his invention in 1886 of an inexpensive method for producing aluminum

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

John Sweet is author of “The Sewing Girl’s Tale,” the story of the first published rape trial in American history.  Sweet researched Lanah Sawyer’s decision to charge an upper class man named Henry Bedlow with rape, leading to a courtroom drama, riots in the streets, and public debate over class privilege.  Sweet is a professor at the University of North Carolina.

Thursday, December 29, 2022-Politician Jacob Snell of Montgomery County 

Boss Snell’s girth made him an easy target for political cartoonists.  A New York Journal cartoon in 1901 showed a seated Snell with a diamond stickpin on his tie.  The caption said: “Jacob Snell, whose diamond looks him square in the face.”

Friday, December 30, 2022- Episode 455-Buddy Levy author of Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic (1913) Voyage of the Karluk.  Levy, who lives in Idaho, is a go-to author for Arctic history.

In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, December 27, 2022

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   The sign was refurbished and has been displayed outside City Hall in recent years.

The Historians Podcast fund drive has exceeded our $6000 yearly goal!  The current total is $6425.  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. Latest donations from Joseph Collea and Scott Lorenz.  Thank you for keeping Historians Podcast online and on radio! Each Monday and Wednesday WMHT89.1FM Public Radio Albany RISE

Monday, December 26, 2022-Story behind the story, Christmas memories

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Fonda’s Queen Libby

People in Fonda called her Queen Libby. A formidable woman from Italy, Queen Libby literally stopped a train, saved a man from the electric chair and became a major property owner in Fonda.

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

John Sweet is author of “The Sewing Girl’s Tale,” the story of the first published rape trial in American history.  Sweet researched Lanah Sawyer’s decision to charge an upper class man named Henry Bedlow with rape, leading to a courtroom drama, riots in the streets, and public debate over class privilege.  Sweet is a professor at the University of North Carolina.

Thursday, December 29, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—-Politician Jacob Snell of Montgomery County 

Friday, December 30, 2022- Episode 455-Buddy Levy author of Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic (1913) Voyage of the Karluk.  Levy, who lives in Idaho, is a go-to author for Arctic history.

In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame.

This Sunday, January 1, 2023- Christmas column 2

Amsterdam Christmas memories

By Bob Cudmore

   Amsterdam retail sales records were broken in the 1902 Christmas shopping season.  Receipts were up for department stores, dry goods and clothing.  Merchants reported a week’s worth of banner shopping days leading up to Christmas. 

   So many packages and letters crowded the post office, then at East Main and Church Streets that employees had problems finding places to stand to do their jobs.

   On Christmas day in 1902 the Salvation Army fed 500 people.  Amsterdam Recorder newspaper carrier boys were guests of the publisher Christmas afternoon, seeing the melodrama “A Hidden Crime” at the East Main Street opera house.

   The boisterous boys aroused attention before the play started but the newspaper reported the lads settled down to watch the show, “The hearts of the  auditors kept going bumpety-bump through the nearly three hours of the play.”

   In 1918 seventy soldiers from an Army truck train were entertained at Christmas dinner at the YMCA in Amsterdam by the Red Cross.  In 1920 Amsterdam Police enjoyed a Christmas tree and supper at police headquarters. 

   The Sassafras Bird Sanctuary opened in 1931 and was a popular spot.  In winter, children of New East Main Street School prepared a Christmas tree for the Sassafras with food for the birds.

   One of the sights in Amsterdam during the heyday of carpet manufacturing was the lighted outline of a Christmas tree on the front of the Clock Building on Prospect Street, then headquarters of Bigelow-Sanford carpets.

   Amsterdam had a Christmas parade on November 22 1947 featuring a large balloon train.  The parade was covered in the Mohawk Carpets employees’ publication, Tomohawk.

   A picture shows a large crowd spilling onto East Main Street to get a view as the engine of the balloon train passed in front of Lindsay’s Shoes.  It looks as if the train barely cleared the Christmas decorations hung across the street.  The parade began at what was Coessens Park in the East End and traveled down East and West Main Streets.

   Santa arrived by helicopter at the parking lot behind Lurie's Department Store in downtown Amsterdam on December 6, 1958.

   Santa proceeded on an armored personnel carrier (on loan from the National Guard) to Coessens Park.

   A Christmas village had been built at the park and Santa took up residence for three weeks in his workshop as part of Amsterdam's Christmas Festival.

   Mayor Thomas F. Gregg said a Christmas Festival was one of his dreams to boost the reputation of Amsterdam.  Gregg operated a butcher shop on Railroad Street downtown.  A Democrat, he was mayor for one two year term, 1958 and 1959.

   Attractions in the festival included a life size 15 piece Nativity scene.  A miniature fire truck from Boston gave rides to children.  There was a cafeteria with refreshments and Santa's reindeer were on display.

   The reindeer were eight English fallow deer rented from Catskill Game Farm. The game farm also provided six llamas, eight sheep and several donkeys. Closed in 2006, Catskill Game Farm was one of the biggest private zoos in America.

   A large organ operated by an animated Santa Claus played holiday music at the festival.

   The next year, 1959, Coessens Park apparently featured some holiday decorations installed by the Junior Chamber of Commerce.  But there was no Christmas Festival in 1959 nor in subsequent years.  Mayor Gregg died in 1960.

   A large lighted sign had proclaimed Seasons Greetings during the 1958 festival. Jerry Snyder of Historic Amsterdam League said the sign was found in the carriage house at City Hall on Church Street.

   The sign was refurbished and has been displayed outside City Hall in recent years.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, December 26, 2022

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   Santa arrived by helicopter at the parking lot behind Lurie's Department Store in downtown Amsterdam on December 6, 1958.

Thanks to your donations The Historians Podcast fund drive has exceeded our $6000 yearly goal!  The current total is $6425.  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. Latest donations from Joseph Collea and Scott Lorenz.  Thank you for keeping Historians Podcast online and on radio!

Amsterdam Christmas memories

By Bob Cudmore

   Amsterdam retail sales records were broken in the 1902 Christmas shopping season.  Receipts were up for department stores, dry goods and clothing.  Merchants reported a week’s worth of banner shopping days leading up to Christmas. 

   So many packages and letters crowded the post office, then at East Main and Church Streets that employees had problems finding places to stand to do their jobs.

   On Christmas day in 1902 the Salvation Army fed 500 people.  Amsterdam Recorder newspaper carrier boys were guests of the publisher Christmas afternoon, seeing the melodrama “A Hidden Crime” at the East Main Street opera house.

   The boisterous boys aroused attention before the play started but the newspaper reported the lads settled down to watch the show, “The hearts of the  auditors kept going bumpety-bump through the nearly three hours of the play.”

   In 1918 seventy soldiers from an Army truck train were entertained at Christmas dinner at the YMCA in Amsterdam by the Red Cross.  In 1920 Amsterdam Police enjoyed a Christmas tree and supper at police headquarters. 

   The Sassafras Bird Sanctuary opened in 1931 and was a popular spot.  In winter, children of New East Main Street School prepared a Christmas tree for the Sassafras with food for the birds.

   One of the sights in Amsterdam during the heyday of carpet manufacturing was the lighted outline of a Christmas tree on the front of the Clock Building on Prospect Street, then headquarters of Bigelow-Sanford carpets.

   Amsterdam had a Christmas parade on November 22 1947 featuring a large balloon train.  The parade was covered in the Mohawk Carpets employees’ publication, Tomohawk.

   A picture shows a large crowd spilling onto East Main Street to get a view as the engine of the balloon train passed in front of Lindsay’s Shoes.  It looks as if the train barely cleared the Christmas decorations hung across the street.  The parade began at what was Coessens Park in the East End and traveled down East and West Main Streets.

   Santa arrived by helicopter at the parking lot behind Lurie's Department Store in downtown Amsterdam on December 6, 1958.

   Santa proceeded on an armored personnel carrier (on loan from the National Guard) to Coessens Park.

   A Christmas village had been built at the park and Santa took up residence for three weeks in his workshop as part of Amsterdam's Christmas Festival.

   Mayor Thomas F. Gregg said a Christmas Festival was one of his dreams to boost the reputation of Amsterdam.  Gregg operated a butcher shop on Railroad Street downtown.  A Democrat, he was mayor for one two year term, 1958 and 1959.

   Attractions in the festival included a life size 15 piece Nativity scene.  A miniature fire truck from Boston gave rides to children.  There was a cafeteria with refreshments and Santa's reindeer were on display.

   The reindeer were eight English fallow deer rented from Catskill Game Farm. The game farm also provided six llamas, eight sheep and several donkeys. Closed in 2006, Catskill Game Farm was one of the biggest private zoos in America.

   A large organ operated by an animated Santa Claus played holiday music at the festival.

   The next year, 1959, Coessens Park apparently featured some holiday decorations installed by the Junior Chamber of Commerce.  But there was no Christmas Festival in 1959 nor in subsequent years.  Mayor Gregg died in 1960.

   A large lighted sign had proclaimed Seasons Greetings during the 1958 festival. Jerry Snyder of Historic Amsterdam League said the sign was found in the carriage house at City Hall on Church Street.

   The sign was refurbished and has been displayed outside City Hall in recent years.

Off the digital press to post this Friday

Friday, December 30, 2022- Episode 455-Buddy Levy author of Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic (1913) Voyage of the Karluk.  Levy, who lives in Idaho, is a go-to author for Arctic history.

In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, December 25, 2022

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