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John E. Larrabee’s 1911 obituary said his store had become the most successful hardware business in the city.  Larrabee was succeeded as general manager by his brother-in-law Warner Leavenworth, who died in 1940.  Leavenworth’s son Thomas, who had joined the firm in 1931, became president in 1940.

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People loved Larrabee’s Hardware

By Bob Cudmore

   Larrabee’s hardware store, located on Market Street in downtown Amsterdam for over 80 years, was a beloved institution.

   Born in the town of Amsterdam in 1851, John E. Larrabee began his hardware career working for merchant E. T. Leavenworth.  In 1876, Larrabee went into partnership with L. L. Dean.  Larrabee later partnered with W. G. Barnes, a store which lasted eight years, under the name of Larrabee & Barnes.  In 1889 Larrabee married Louise Leavenworth.  They had two daughters. 

   When the Sanford Homestead Building was constructed by carpet magnate Stephen Sanford on Market Street in 1891, Larrabee opened his own store in the new building.  The John E. Larrabee Company sold retail and wholesale hardware and provided supplies for area industries.  Located at 5 Market Street the firm expanded and took over 3 Market Street, previously home to the Odd Figure Bazaar. 

   John E. Larrabee’s 1911 obituary said his store had become the most successful hardware business in the city.  Larrabee was succeeded as general manager by his brother-in-law Warner Leavenworth, who died in 1940.  Leavenworth’s son Thomas, who had joined the firm in 1931, became president in 1940.  By then the store occupied 3 to 9 Market Street on the east side of a busy downtown thoroughfare. 

   Larrabee’s was sold in 1960 and Tom Leavenworth pursued other business ventures, including his work as treasurer of Amsterdam’s Inman Manufacturing, which made machinery for the box making industry.

   The new owners of Larrabee’s, Ailing Beardsley and Mary Louise Rossiter, began an expansion of the firm in 1961, putting more emphasis on selling hardware to new industries that were starting in the area as the large carpet mills exited.  Beardsley and Rossiter retained Samuel H. Anderson as store manager and said they were expanding appliance sales along with Larrabee’s previous retail emphasis on hardware, housewares, gifts and toys. 

(Anderson was active in politics serving on board of spvsrs  he and wife ruth relocated to California in 1967.  Anderson had started s.h. Anderson sporting goods with several outlets in new York including at mortan’s in Amsterdam.  In ca joined white front department store in LA 

   Beardsley and Rossiter apparently were related.  Beardsley, a World War II infantry veteran who had operated an industrial supply firm in New Jersey, was married to Carol Rossiter.  She was originally from Albany, presumably related to Mary Louise Rossiter, who lived in Slingerlands, headed an Albany real estate firm and was treasurer of Livermore Chevrolet.

   Beardsley and his family moved to Amsterdam.  In 1965 Larrabee’s celebrated 75 years in business.  In 1972 Beardsley’s son, also named Ailing, was retail manager of Larrabee's and up for a young business award from the Junior Chamber of Commerce.

   Larrabee’s apparently closed in the 1970s but it is not clear exactly when.  Historian Jerry Snyder found that the 1973-1974 city directory has the “professional plaza” replacing the Sanford building on Market Street.  Furs by Gus was at 3 Market, Hays and Wormuth Insurance at 7, and there was no listing for 5 Market St. 

    In the 1950s Larrabee’s sold toys especially at Christmas, including Lionel and American Flyer model trains.  Each brand installed a model train layout in the store.  A 1958 ad offered an American Flyer guided missile train for $33.88 that could fire toy rockets.

Wednesday, December 14, 2022-Episode 346-Christopher Philippo is editor of “The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories Volume Four.”  Stories include The Green Huntsman and The Christmas Ghost.

A Valancourt Yuletide tradition returns, this time with rare 19th-century tales from U.S. newspapers and magazines

The Christmas ghost story tradition is usually associated with Charles Dickens and Victorian England, but -- apparently unknown to historians and scholars -- Christmas ghost stories were extremely widespread and popular in 19th-century America as well, frequently appearing in newspapers and magazines during the holiday season.

Thursday, December 15, 2022

The Italian Gardens in Broadalbin

Amsterdam transplant Fred Wojcicki from California has contributed a memory of the Italian Gardens of Broadalbin.

          “My brother Joe, who lost his life in St. Lo, France on August 18, 1944, worked for Arthur Chalmers who owned the gardens in Broadalbin during the Depression years,” Wojcicki wrote.  “I had been on the grounds of the gardens a few times with my brother and can still remember Mr. Chalmers going by in his chauffeured limousine.”

Friday, December 16, 2022-Episode 453-2022 Highlights Edition with excerpts from the secret role of Japanese Americans who fought in the Pacific in World War II; Bob Gumson’s memoir In Blind Sight; Amsterdam’s Guy Park Manor; Anita Sanchez on the history of glaciers and Jim Kaplan on the life of of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, December 13, 2022

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Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Larrabee’s Hardware

Larrabee’s hardware store, located on Market Street in downtown Amsterdam for over 80 years, was a beloved institution.

   Born in the town of Amsterdam in 1851, John E. Larrabee began his hardware career working for merchant E. T. Leavenworth. 

Wednesday, December 14, 2022-From the Archives- November 27, 2020-Episode 346-Christopher Philippo is editor of “The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories Volume Four.”  Stories include The Green Huntsman and The Christmas Ghost.

Thursday, December 15, 2022, From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-The Italian Gardens in Broadalbin

Friday, December 16, 2022-Episode 453-2022 Highlights Edition with excerpts from the secret role of Japanese Americans who fought in the Pacific in World War II; Bob Gumson’s memoir In Blind Sight; Amsterdam’s Guy Park Manor; Anita Sanchez on the history of glaciers and Jim Kaplan on the life of of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.

Lafayette in Fort Hunter

By Bob Cudmore

   The Marquis de Lafayette visited Schoharie Crossing by canal boat in 1825 and had a reunion with two Mohawk Valley patriots. 

   According to Jim Kaplan of the Lower Manhattan Historical Association, 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 in the Battle of Minden in the Seven Years War, when young Lafayette was only two years old.  

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

   During the American Revolution the Frenchman visited Johnstown New York and was entertained by the families of Jacob and Thomas Sammons, who leased the former Johnson Hall for four years after the Loyalist Johnson family fled to Canada. 

   In 1824 President James Monroe, who had befriended the French nobleman when they both served on General Washington’s staff, invited Lafayette to tour the United States.  In 1825 the Marquis was traveling east on the New York Erie Canal through the Mohawk Valley.

   Thomas Sammons and his son Simeon from the Mohawk Valley were going west by canal boat from Albany.  When they arrived in Schenectady, the town was festooned with flags, flowers and evergreens.

   The Marquis de Lafayette was expected to arrive that day.  However, according to an account printed in “Illustrated History of Montgomery & Fulton Counties, New York, 1772-1838” published by F.W. Beers in 1878, word came that Lafayette would not get to Schenectady until the next day.

   Sammons proceeded west on the canal in hopes of meeting up with Lafayette’s packet boat.  When the Sammons boat came to Fort Hunter, where the canal crossed the Schoharie Creek east of Fultonville, Lafayette’s vessel approached from the other direction.

   Beers’ history book had this account of the meeting, “Mr. Sammons’ boat was at the crossing when the packet conveying the illustrious Frenchman bore down upon it, decked with streamers and evergreens, even the harness of the horses bristling with flags.  A jubilant crowd upon the tow-path, horseback and on foot, kept abreast of the coming boat.  Sammons was exhorted to hurry across the creek and out of the way, that there might be no unnecessary delay to the progress of nobility.  He, seeing his opportunity, hastened to comply, and landing with his son, came back to the towing bridge from which he was able to board the packet as it arrived.”

   The Marquis was reclining on a couch but recognized his old friend Sammons.  Sammons and Lafayette had a brief reunion, extended when Lafayette ordered the boat be held there for a time, against the wishes of its captain.

   The Beers’ book continued, “Mr. Sammons stepped ashore, as may well be supposed, a proud and happy man, and his son a proud and happy boy, no doubt, or he would never have told the story with such readiness and spirit when on the downhill side of life.”

   The boy, Simeon Sammons, grew up to be the commander of the 115th New York State Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War.  Sammons was wounded in the foot at the Confederate victory at Olustee, Florida in 1864.  He recovered but was wounded again when the regiment fought at the Crater in Petersburg, Virginia.  Simeon then returned to Fonda and later was elected to the State Legislature.

   Lafayette died in Paris in 1834.  Thomas Sammons, who served two terms in Congress in the early 1800s, died in Johnstown in 1838.  Simeon Sammons died in Fonda in 1881.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, December 12, 2022

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The Saturday Story on The Historians

Wayne Van Der Wal is the author of the historical fiction novel, "The Gospel of Santa Claus – Inspired by the True Story of Saint Nicholas."

It’s Christmas Eve, and a troubled Joe and Mary and their three children are taking the train to visit family. Suddenly, a bearded stranger with a twinkle in his eye takes a seat and begins spinning a provocative tale that intrigues, delights, and inspires. 

Masterfully weaving past and present through story, lessons, and devotions, The Gospel of Santa Claus follows the incredible story of Saint Nicholas, born in third century AD, who overcomes childhood tragedy, feels called by God to take a vow of poverty, endures horrific persecution for his religious faith, and goes on to become one of the most beloved, generous, loving, and famous figures in human history. 

Sunday

Bob Cudmore "Focus on History"

December 11, 2022-Lafayette in Fort Hunter 

The Marquis was a wealthy French aristocrat whose father had been killed by the British in the Battle of Minden in the Seven Years War, when young Lafayette was only two years old.  

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette 1757-1834

New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan looks at the importance of French aristocrat Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette in the American Revolution.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, December 10, 2022

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A Christmas balloon train in Amsterdam

By Bob Cudmore

          Amsterdam had a huge Christmas parade on Saturday, November 22 1947 featuring a large balloon train. 

          Local history contributor Emil Suda researched newspaper clippings about the parade and provided the cover of a Mohawk Carpets employees’ publication, Tomohawk, showing the balloon train in Amsterdam.

          The picture shows a large crowd spilling onto East Main Street craning their necks 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.

          Suda wondered if the balloon train is the same as one used in a 1948 parade in Schenectady, described in a recent Daily Gazette article by Jeff Wilkin.

          According to newspaper accounts, the Amsterdam parade in 1947 featured “inflated balloons and augmented bands.”  The parade began at Coessens Park in the East End and traveled down East and West Main Streets.

MOHAWK VALLEY DOODLEBUG

          The winter issue of Classic Trains magazine has a story about a 1929 Brill gas-electric car or “doodlebug” used by the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad (F.J. & G.) for mail and express service only.  On other rail lines, the “doodlebugs” carried passengers.

          According to the magazine article by area rail fan Jim Shaughnessy, the F.J. & G. used the gasoline powered vehicle on its traditional railroad line between Fonda and Gloversville to retain the lucrative U.S. mail contract and carry other express freight when the railroad’s trolley service ended in 1938.

          The gas-electric car was built by the J.G. Brill Company of Philadelphia in 1929 and sold to the F. J. & G. in 1938 after use by two other railroads.

          Numbered 340 by the local railroad, the car had operating controls at either end.  The car made three round trips six days a week between Gloversville and Fonda.

          Shaughnessy wrote that on March 28, 1946, Number 340 was involved in a fatal crash with a traditional F. J. & G. freight train near Sammonsville because of a misinterpretation of orders.

          “The express man on Number 340 was crushed to death when a coffin being transported shifted with the impact and pinned him against the wall,” Shaughnessey wrote.

          Number 340 was retired in 1958 as the F. J. & G. shifted mail and express service to trucks.  In 1960, the car was sold to a company in Winnipeg, Canada.

Friday, December 9-Episode 452-New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan looks at the importance of French aristocrat Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette in the American Revolution.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, December 8, 2022

The leaves are gone, the view is the same...

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T Martin Bennett, “Wounded Tiger”

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Send a check to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Later this month

Friday, December 23-Episode 454- Stephen Blauweiss is co-author of The Story of Historic Kingston: Featuring 950 Images and Connections to the Catskills and New York City.

Thursday

The Christmas balloon train

Amsterdam had a huge Christmas parade on Saturday, November 22, 1947 ...

Jim Kaplan

Friday, December 9-Episode 452-New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan looks at the importance of French aristocrat Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette in the American Revolution.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, December 7, 2022

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   Cochran was the inspiration for “Colonel Flip Corkin” and “General Philerie” in Milt Caniff’s cartoon strips “Terry and the Pirates” and “Steve Canyon.”

Historians Go Fund Me Link updated Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Thank you for keeping Historians Podcast online and on Mohawk Valley and Albany Public Radio (Monday and Wednesday each week, part of The RISE Program)

The Historians Podcast fund drive has reached our $6000 yearly fund drive goal!  Thanks to our most recent donors who put us over the top with a current total of $6125: Patricia Chadwick, Jim Kaplan, Dave Northrup, Wanda Burch and Barbara Wolniak.  You may still donate online today at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022   Still time: Send a check to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Pearl Harbor changes

By Bob Cudmore

   Life magazine published a photo spread in its December 1, 1941 edition covering a simulated enemy air attack the previous August on the small airport in Fort Plain in the Mohawk Valley. 

   An artillery regiment defended the airstrip against six fighter planes and one bomber flying out of the airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.

    A flight of six P-40 fighters took off from a temporary airstrip concealed in a nearby apple orchard to fight the attacking planes.

    Amsterdam city historian Robert von Hasseln, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S, Army, said it is likely that one of the participants in the exercise at Fort Plain was Lieutenant Phillip Cochran.  Cochran later commanded a fighter group in Burma. 

   He pioneered many innovative tactics including operating from temporary unimproved airfields, as was done in the exercise in Fort Plain.

   Cochran was the inspiration for “Colonel Flip Corkin” and “General Philerie” in Milt Caniff’s cartoon strips “Terry and the Pirates” and “Steve Canyon.”

PEARL HARBOR

   An enemy’s real attack came 75 years ago at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  According to Robert Going’s book, “Where Do We Find Such Men,” the first Amsterdam casualty of World War II was William E. Hasenfuss, Jr. from a family of nine children on Northampton Road.

   Hasenfuss had flown planes at an air field in Perth before enlisting in the Army in 1939. He died at Hickam Air Field.  Japanese airplanes shot up the B-24 bomber Hasenfuss and his ground crew were working on. Every member of the ground crew was hit.

USS AMSTERDAM

   Arch D. Anderson, commander of the James T. Bergen American Legion post, contacted the Navy in 1938 to begin the campaign to get a ship named for Amsterdam. The Chamber of Commerce got behind the idea as did Mayor Arthur Carter, who knew President Franklin Roosevelt from Roosevelt’s days as governor in Albany.

   Work began on what would become the cruiser U.S.S. Amsterdam in 1943.  William Hasenfuss Jr.’s mother, Frieda, Amsterdam’s first Gold Star Mother of the war, christened the U.S.S. Amsterdam on April 25, 1944 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Virginia.

   “I was thinking of William when I smashed that bottle.” Mrs. Hasenfuss said as the vessel slid down the ways into the James River in 1944.

   On January 8, 1945 she and her husband returned to Newport News when the Amsterdam received its commission under Captain Andrew Lawton of Youngstown, Ohio.

   The Amsterdam was part of the fleet in Tokyo Bay for Japanese surrender ceremonies that took place onboard the U.S.S. Missouri in 1945.  The Amsterdam sailed back to America, after picking up battle-weary and wounded Seabees in Okinawa.

AT SEA

   James V. Hogg from Amsterdam was serving on a Navy ship somewhere in the Pacific when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

   As his niece Karen terHaar of North Carolina tells the story, “In the months after Pearl Harbor, many ships in the area were ordered to maintain radio silence. The families of all crew members did not know if their fathers, sons or brothers were dead or alive.”

   Hogg’s parents, Frank and Mildred Hogg, were living on Grant Avenue in Amsterdam, as was terHaar’s mother, Shirley Hogg.

   TerHaar wrote, “The following April, about four months after Pearl Harbor, Mom was sitting on the front porch when she heard the postman’s voice. She looked up and saw him running down the sidewalk. He was waving a letter and yelling, ‘Jimmy’s alive! Jimmy’s alive!’”

   James Hogg became a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy and married a woman from Australia. He later lived in California and died several years ago.

Wednesday, December 7, 2022-From the Archive- Episode 139, November 25, 2016-T Martin Bennett, author of “Wounded Tiger”: The true story of the pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, whose life was transformed by an American prisoner and by a girl he never met.

Fuming with hatred for America and a strong sense of national pride, Mitsuo Fuchida quickly climbed the ranks of the Japanese Imperial Navy to the position of top pilot, leading the attack at Pearl Harbor.

Thursday

The Christmas balloon train

Amsterdam had a huge Christmas parade on Saturday, November 22, 1947 featuring a large balloon train. Local history contributor Emil Suda researched newspaper clippings about the parade and provided the cover of a Mohawk Carpets employees’ publication, Tomohawk, showing the balloon train in Amsterdam.

Friday, December 9-Episode 452-New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan looks at the importance of French aristocrat Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette in the American Revolution.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, December 6, 2022

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Historians Go Fund Me Link updated Monday, December 5, 2022

The Historians Podcast fund drive has reached our $6000 yearly fund drive goal!  Thanks to our most recent donors who put us over the top with a current total of $6125: Patricia Chadwick, Jim Kaplan, Dave Northrup, Wanda Burch and Barbara Wolniak.  You may still donate online today at https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022   Still time: Send a check to Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Thank you for keeping Historians Podcast online and on Mohawk Valley and Albany Public Radio (Monday and Wednesday each week, part of The RISE Program)

Tuesday, December 6, 2022-Amsterdam changed after Pearl Harbor.

The movie “South of Tahiti” playing at the Strand Theatre on East Main Street in Amsterdam was interrupted Sunday afternoon December 7, 1941 when the news broke that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.  Radio coverage was piped into the theater and dazed patrons left the building. 

Wednesday, December 7, 2022-From the Archive- Episode 139, November 25, 2016-T Martin Bennett, author of “Wounded Tiger”: The true story of the pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, whose life was transformed by an American prisoner and by a girl he never met.

Friday, December 9-Episode 452-New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan looks at the importance of French aristocrat Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette in the American Revolution.

Great Depression stories in the Mohawk Valley

By Bob Cudmore

   Isadore Demsky, a native of Amsterdam who became the actor Kirk Douglas, received a few pieces of gold as Bar Mitzvah presents in 1929.  Added to money saved from his paper route, he had collected $313, what he termed a fortune in those days.

   Young Demsky was going to save the nest egg to go to college but over his mother Bryna’s objections, he gave the money to his father Harry Demsky, a local ragman and legendary strong man. 

   “He wanted to buy up a lot of metal, because the prices were so cheap (24 cents a pound) and then sell it at a killing,” wrote Douglas in his autobiography, “The Ragman’s Son.”

   But the bottom fell out of the scrap metal market in 1929 with the stock market crash.  His father ended up selling the copper he bought with his son’s money for two cents a pound.

   Douglas wrote, “That was what the Depression meant to me, that prices came tumbling down and my father lost my savings.  Our scale of living wasn’t much different before, during or after.”

GLOVE CITIES

   Historian Barbara McMartin in her book “The Glove Cities” wrote that although Johnstown and Gloversville enjoyed relatively good times in the 1920s, workers and owners in the glove industry had to struggle, even before the Depression.

   “The Depression, though more severe, was nothing new,” McMartin wrote.  “It was not a bad decade: years at the beginning and end were poor, but 1935-37 were actually quite good years.  In Fulton County, no one starved, no one prospered, and most continued to find some work.”

SCOOPING COAL

   Arnold Wittemeier was born in 1920 in Fort Hunter where his father, Harold, owned Wittemeier’s, one of Montgomery County’s biggest coal companies.

   Coal for the family business came on the West Shore Railroad.  In the Depression, coal trains would speed through the valley to try to keep people from taking more coal from hopper cars.

   “It got so bad that cars of coal were having two tons of coal scooped off of them,” Wittemeier said.

THE NRA PARADE

   An estimated ten thousand people turned out in Amsterdam on a raw November 9, 1933 to parade for economic revival.

   Former New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt had become President that year.  Roosevelt was launching his New Deal, a part of which was the National Recovery Administration or NRA.

   According to the Albany Evening News, the NRA Parade was the biggest in Amsterdam’s history (a debatable point) and featured hundreds of marching mill workers, office employees and school children. There were floats, bands and drum corps.

   Republican Mayor Robert Brumagin reviewed the line of march at a reviewing stand on Church Street.  But newly chosen Democratic Mayor-elect Arthur Carter was receiving cheers from the crowd, according to the Evening News, as Carter—a supporter of President Roosevelt--walked at the head of the contingent from the James T. Bergen American Legion Post.

   Loyal Democrat Michael J. Wytrwal was NRA chairman for Montgomery County.  Wytrwal was a businessman in the Polish neighborhood on Reid Hill.  His family operated a coal yard, drugstore and furniture store.

   The most visible Amsterdam public works project during the Depression was the municipal golf course, named for Mayor Carter and partly bankrolled by FDR’s federal government. 

BLUE PLATE

   Orsini’s Royal Restaurant at East Main and Liberty streets in Amsterdam offered a blue plate special.  The special cost 35 cents and included meat or fish, mashed potatoes and vegetable.  Coffee was an additional five cents.  Orsini’s also offered a meal ticket for $4.50 in the Depression that was worth $5 in food.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, December 5, 2022

Increasing clouds, with a high near 45. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon.

Tonight

A slight chance of snow after 3am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 31. East wind 3 to 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

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"But the bottom fell out..."

Historians Go Fund Me Link updated Sunday, December 4, 2022

The Historians Podcast fund drive has reached our $6000 yearly fund drive goal!  Thanks to our most recent donors who put us over the top with a current total of $6125: Patricia Chadwick, Jim Kaplan, Dave Northrup, Wanda Burch and Barbara Wolniak.  You may still donate online today 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.  You may give anonymously and no contribution is too big or too small.  Thank you for keeping Historians Podcast online and on Mohawk Valley and Albany Public Radio

Today in The E edition (Regional section) of The Gazette

Lafayette

Bob Cudmore Focus on History

(This story posted next Sunday, December 11, 2022 here on The Historians)

Sunday, December 4, 2022

Great Depression stories in the Mohawk Valley

By Bob Cudmore

   Isadore Demsky, a native of Amsterdam who became the actor Kirk Douglas, received a few pieces of gold as Bar Mitzvah presents in 1929.  Added to money saved from his paper route, he had collected $313, what he termed a fortune in those days.

   Young Demsky was going to save the nest egg to go to college but over his mother Bryna’s objections, he gave the money to his father Harry Demsky, a local ragman and legendary strong man. 

   “He wanted to buy up a lot of metal, because the prices were so cheap (24 cents a pound) and then sell it at a killing,” wrote Douglas in his autobiography, “The Ragman’s Son.”

   But the bottom fell out of the scrap metal market in 1929 with the stock market crash.  His father ended up selling the copper he bought with his son’s money for two cents a pound.

   Douglas wrote, “That was what the Depression meant to me, that prices came tumbling down and my father lost my savings.  Our scale of living wasn’t much different before, during or after.”

GLOVE CITIES

   Historian Barbara McMartin in her book “The Glove Cities” wrote that although Johnstown and Gloversville enjoyed relatively good times in the 1920s, workers and owners in the glove industry had to struggle, even before the Depression.

   “The Depression, though more severe, was nothing new,” McMartin wrote.  “It was not a bad decade: years at the beginning and end were poor, but 1935-37 were actually quite good years.  In Fulton County, no one starved, no one prospered, and most continued to find some work.”

SCOOPING COAL

   Arnold Wittemeier was born in 1920 in Fort Hunter where his father, Harold, owned Wittemeier’s, one of Montgomery County’s biggest coal companies.

   Coal for the family business came on the West Shore Railroad.  In the Depression, coal trains would speed through the valley to try to keep people from taking more coal from hopper cars.

   “It got so bad that cars of coal were having two tons of coal scooped off of them,” Wittemeier said.

THE NRA PARADE

   An estimated ten thousand people turned out in Amsterdam on a raw November 9, 1933 to parade for economic revival.

   Former New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt had become President that year.  Roosevelt was launching his New Deal, a part of which was the National Recovery Administration or NRA.

   According to the Albany Evening News, the NRA Parade was the biggest in Amsterdam’s history (a debatable point) and featured hundreds of marching mill workers, office employees and school children. There were floats, bands and drum corps.

   Republican Mayor Robert Brumagin reviewed the line of march at a reviewing stand on Church Street.  But newly chosen Democratic Mayor-elect Arthur Carter was receiving cheers from the crowd, according to the Evening News, as Carter—a supporter of President Roosevelt--walked at the head of the contingent from the James T. Bergen American Legion Post.

   Loyal Democrat Michael J. Wytrwal was NRA chairman for Montgomery County.  Wytrwal was a businessman in the Polish neighborhood on Reid Hill.  His family operated a coal yard, drugstore and furniture store.

   The most visible Amsterdam public works project during the Depression was the municipal golf course, named for Mayor Carter and partly bankrolled by FDR’s federal government. 

BLUE PLATE

   Orsini’s Royal Restaurant at East Main and Liberty streets in Amsterdam offered a blue plate special.  The special cost 35 cents and included meat or fish, mashed potatoes and vegetable.  Coffee was an additional five cents.  Orsini’s also offered a meal ticket for $4.50 in the Depression that was worth $5 in food.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Sunday, December 4, 2022

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"It's an off-topic Thing"

Historians Go Fund Me Link updated Saturday, December 3, 2022 

The Historians Podcast fund drive has reached our $6000 yearly fund drive goal!  Thanks to our most recent donors who put us over the top with a current total of $6125: Patricia Chadwick, Jim Kaplan, Dave Northrup, Wanda Burch and Barbara Wolniak.  You may still donate online today 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.  You may give anonymously and no contribution is too big or too small.  Thank you for keeping Historians Podcast online and on Mohawk Valley and Albany Public Radio

Instructor Diana Carter reports on archaeological digs along the Mohawk River and in the Stockade section of Schenectady done by the Community Archaeology Program at Schenectady County Community College. A 29 minute conversation

Environmental educator Anita Sanchez is author of Meltdown: Discover Earth’s Irreplaceable Glaciers And Learn What You Can Do To Save Them.

The Sunday Read

Sunday, December 4, 2022 Great Depression stories from the Mohawk Valley

Isadore Demsky, a native of Amsterdam who became the actor Kirk Douglas, received a few pieces of gold as Bar Mitzvah presents in 1929.  Added to money saved from his paper route, he had collected $313, what he termed a fortune in those days.

   Young Demsky was going to save the nest egg to go to college but over his mother Bryna’s objections, he gave the money to his father Harry Demsky, a local ragman and legendary strong man. 

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, December 3, 2022

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