The Historians

Bob Cudmore will present a history talk this Thursday night November 3, 2022 at 7 pm at Pawling Hall on Pawling Street in Hagaman. The event is scheduled by the Hagaman Historical Society.  Bob will present stories from his newspaper columns in the Gazette and Amsterdam  Recorder, plus his Hiistorians Podcast. 

If Bob can get out of the house at that time of the evening, you can too.

Monday, October 31, 2022-The story behind the story. Shakspeare at the golf course (Turn on your speaker, the story is about eight minutes(or ear buds)

We’ve raised $5000 so far for our yearly Historians Podcast fund drive.  That’s over 80% of our $6000 goal.  We need to raise $1000 in the next two months.  Please 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.  You may give anonymously and no donation is too small.  Our latest donation was from Dave Northrup.

November 2022 in The Mohawk Valley, the color change is good to great this season

(You should be here)

Tuesday, November 1, 2022-From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—-Who was Richard Montgomery? 

According to historian Hugh Donlon’s book “Outlines of History,” Montgomery was born in 1736 near Raphoe, Ireland.  Other sources say Montgomery was born in Dublin.  He joined the British army at 18 and served against the French in North America and the West Indies. More tomorrow...

Wednesday, November 2, 2022- From the Archives-Episode 433-A history of the Mohawk River with Mary Zawacki, executive director of the Schenectady County Historical Society.  When the last Ice Age began to melt 22,000 years ago, the Mohawk River flowed with more force than Niagara Falls.

Thursday, November 3, 72022-From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—-People and pigeons in Amsterdam fire.

Friday, November 4, 2022-Episode 447-2022 Highlights Edition with excerpts from Joe Collea on Ilion, N.Y.; Giovanni Ruscitti visits his Italian roots; Chris Carola discusses Mohawk chief Joseph Brant; Alyson Richman on writing historical fiction David Pietrusza dissects FDR’s landslide 1936 victory;  Norm Bollen meets filmmakers interested in Mohawk Valley; Rod Correll on learning to be a Leatherman.

Shakespeare at the golf course

By Bob Cudmore

   The Phil Kilfoil Company’s Woodland Players from New York City performed Shakespeare’s comedy “As You Like It” on the grounds of the Antlers Club in Fort Johnson the night of July 13. 1904. 

   The private golf course, today known as Rolling Hills, had opened in 1901 on a 90 acre site.  The original clubhouse was built that year with a spectacular view of the Mohawk Valley from its veranda.

   The play was performed atop a hill overlooking the clubhouse with the woods forming what the Amsterdam Recorder reviewer called “an ideal background” to a grassy stage. 

   Japanese lanterns lighted the audience “with a soft flickering light” and Minch’s orchestra, a local favorite, played popular songs before the show, keeping the crowd entertained while they waited. 

   When the play began, “powerful calcium lights” illuminated the stage and trees with what the newspaper called “a bright but weird glow, which might be well described as exaggerated moonlight.”

   It was chilly for July.  The performance was originally scheduled the night before but had been rained out. 

   An estimated 350 people sat on camp chairs to watch Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy.  Many in the patrons arrived on crowded electric trolley cars from nearby Amsterdam.  The audience loved the play, according to a rave review the next day in the Amsterdam Recorder.

   “Now that the affair is over,” wrote the reviewer, “And has proved an unqualified success, it may not be amiss to state that previously there was just a slight undercurrent of doubt as to the ability of any company traveling as does Kilfoll's at present, to properly present a play of such caliber.

   “But the first lines were scarcely uttered when all questions along this score were obliterated, and the audience settled itself for what would have been a theatrical treat under any circumstances, but was doubly so amid scenes so absolutely fitting.”

   There was apprehension at show time among the actors about the financial solvency of their employer, Woodland Players, owned by the Phil Kilfoil Company of New York City.

   The reviewer said the entire company was good but gave special praise to Ivah M. Wills who played Rosalind, F.J. McCarthy as Touchstone and James A. Young as Jacques de Boys.

      Two weeks after leaving Amsterdam, theatrical producer Kilfoil was charged with passing bogus checks in Oswego, another stop on the tour. 

   Kilfoil told reporters, “We have been victims of circumstances and there was no intention of defrauding any persons in Oswego. We have met with poor business and benefit performances have so far proved a failure." 

   The Oswego and Amsterdam papers reported July 30 that charges were dropped when Kilfoil’s business partner, Charles Wiegand, provided funds to cover the checks.  Wiegand was described as a supervisor of the New York Central Railroad in New York City.

   The Recorder said the actors apparently were among those not getting paid, “The company has been receiving money and one by one the members are leaving Oswego as fast as their remittances arrive.  There will be no more Woodland Players, it is said, and both Wiegand and Kilfoil have expressed their intention of abandoning the dramatic field as a non-paying venture.” 

   I have secured funds, said Kilfoil, to meet every obligation incurred by the company.

      As for the Fort Johnson outdoor venue, the Antlers golf course prospered for many years but its elegant clubhouse burned to the ground in a 1965 fire.  A new clubhouse was built.

   Historian Hugh Donlon wrote the replacement clubhouse is smaller and lacked the “spacious veranda that had contributed so much to summer social life of affluent Amsterdamians for 60 years.”

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, October 31, 2022

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The late film historian Rob Edelman discusses his book “From Spring Training to Screen Test: Baseball Players Turned Actors.” Rob’s wife and film professor emeritus Audrey Kupferberg has stories of Jewish merchants in the thriving downtown of the 1950s in her native Amsterdam, New York.

and

Episode 446- What’s it like to be the boss’s son?  Rod Correll is author of the memoir “Learning to Be a Leatherman-A Rite of Passage.”  Correll lived in the leather business for 50 years, from childhood up to when he left the business to return to Yale for an MBA.

Saturday, October 29, 2022 The Latest from Bob Cudmore

Today in The Daily Gazette "The Paper-Paper"

Picture:Daily Gazette

FOCUS ON HISTORY: The last hurrah for Bowler’s Brewery

Time caught up with Bowler’s Brewery and its ghost sign on Route 5 in Amsterdam’s West End this month.

The Sunday Read on The Historians

 Shakspeare at the golf course

by Bob Cudmore

   An estimated 350 people sat on camp chairs to watch Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy.  Many in the patrons arrived on crowded electric trolley cars from nearby Amsterdam.  The audience loved the play, according to a rave review the next day in the Amsterdam Recorder.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, October 29, 2022

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Friday, October 28, 2022-Episode 446- What’s it like to be the boss’s son?  Rod Correll is author of the memoir “Learning to Be a Leatherman-A Rite of Passage.”  Correll lived in the leather business for 50 years, from childhood up to when he left the business to return to Yale for an MBA.

Saturday, October 29, 2022- From the Archives-From the Archives of The Historians Podcast- Episode 205, March 9, 2018, the late film historian Rob Edelman discusses his book “From Spring Training to Screen Test: Baseball Players Turned Actors.” Rob’s wife and film professor emeritus Audrey Kupferberg has stories of Jewish merchants in the thriving downtown of the 1950s in her native Amsterdam, New York.

Sunday, October 30, 2022 Focus on History from Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder. Shakspeare at the golf course 

It was chilly for July.  The performance was originally scheduled the night before but had been rained out. 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Friday, October 28, 2022

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Episode 438-Ricardo Herrera is author of Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778.  Herrera is visiting professor at the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Carlisle Barracks is a United States Army facility located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The site of the U.S. Army War College, it is the nation's second-oldest active military base. The first structures were built in 1757, during the French and Indian War between Great Britain and France in the colonies

Looking south, down the hill and up the hill into The Town of Florida

Picture:WCSS Radio Amsterdam, where this Saturday at 12:05 you can hear The Historians Podcast(Rod Correll "The Leatherman")

Thursday, October 27, 2022-How the town of Florida got its name.

How did the Montgomery County town of Florida get its name?  County historian Kelly Farquhar and town historian Tim Sievers pointed to a historical coincidence.

Friday, October 28, 2022-Episode 446- What’s it like to be the boss’s son?  Rod Correll is author of the memoir “Learning to Be a Leatherman-A Rite of Passage.”  Correll lived in the leather business for 50 years, from childhood up to when he left the business to return to Yale for an MBA.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, October 26, 2022

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Harry Demsky tombstone in Cranesville N.Y. Standing is historian Bill Simons of Oneonta.

...and now to Widow Susan Road

Ghosts in Montgomery County

By Bob Cudmore

   The reputed haunting of Widow Susan Road in the town of Amsterdam by Widow Susan DeGraff still gets attention from ghost hunters.  The road runs from Chapman Drive (formerly Route 5) up a hill to Route 67.

   Renee Mallet, in her book “Ghosts of New York’s Capital District,” wrote, “Most of the witnesses report seeing a lady in an old fashioned white dress, walking along Widow Susan Road, sometimes crying but always searching for something.”

   Local lore has it that driving down the road and chanting “Widow Susan” three times conjures the spirit.

   Susan Thomas, born in Perth in 1821, married Harmanus DeGraff in 1838. They lived at the bottom of the road on the east side.  Harmanus died around 1848, leaving Susan with the farm and several children.  

   Susan and a daughter later moved to Michigan where the widow died in 1892.  She was buried at Green Hill Cemetery on Church Street in Amsterdam.

   For some time the story was that Susan haunted her old neighborhood looking for her husband’s grave, thought to have been in a family cemetery.

   However, Jerry Snyder of Historic Amsterdam League found that Alonzo DeGraff, the widow’s son, purchased a plot at Green Hill in 1883 and had his father and other family members exhumed from where they were originally buried and moved to Green Hill.

   When Susan DeGraff died in 1892 she was buried next to her husband at Green Hill.  A historical marker to her was erected last year on Widow Susan Road.

   At a virtual presentation on local history organized by Montgomery County Historian Kelly Farquhar, Snyder said Green Hill “suffered devastation” in the October 7th windstorm.

   For example, a large tree fell on a 24-foot obelisk marking the burial plot of the Blood family, shattering the monument into three pieces. 

   Green Hill’s Cemetery Association is seeking funds to repair the damage to the burial ground.

   The Montgomery County Department of History and Archives is located in the county’s Old Courthouse in Fonda next to the railroad tracks.  Court proceedings were moved to a new courthouse in 1892.

   County historian Farquhar said there have been reports of ghost-like activities in the Old Courthouse where her office is located.

   Paranormal investigators came to the building some years back and heard voices in the lobby when nobody was there. 

   On the third floor investigators asked if any spirit was there.  No answer was heard but a tape the investigators made had the response “Linda” on the recording.  At different times people have seen a woman in a long blue dress walking on the building’s second floor. 

   Recently Farquhar said she saw a “little wisp” of something out of the corner of her eye as she was working.  A few days later while typing on her computer she heard a noise.  It sounded like something hit a cardboard box that was on a chair.  The chair holding the box began rocking slightly.

   Farquhar also asked to put the following inquiry to the public about Fonda’s Old Courthouse.  The second floor courtroom became vacant starting in 1892 when the court was moved to the current courthouse.  Partitions and offices were not constructed on the second floor until the 1950s.

   Farquhar has been told that functions were held in the former courtroom, such as wedding receptions.  If anyone has a picture documenting such a gathering at the Old Courthouse, she would enjoy seeing it.

Wednesday

Winter 1778 

Episode 438-Ricardo Herrera is author of Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778.  Herrera is visiting professor at the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Florida formed as a township on March 12, 1793.  According to a document at the county archives by an unknown author, town officials looking for a name noticed that March 12 was the anniversary of explorer Ponce de Leon’s Easter Day landing on the coast of what he named Florida.   

Thursday, October 27, 2022-How the town of Florida got its name.

The latest from the digital press

Friday, October 28, 2022-Episode 446- What’s it like to be the boss’s son?  Rod Correll is author of the memoir “Learning to Be a Leatherman-A Rite of Passage.”  Correll lived in the leather business for 50 years, from childhood up to when he left the business to return to Yale for an MBA.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, October 25, 2022

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Monday, October 24, 2022-The story behind the story.  Learning to be a Leatherman. 

This Friday Bobs conversation with Rod Correll

Episode 446- What’s it like to be the boss’s son?  Rod Correll is author of the memoir “Learning to Be a Leatherman-A Rite of Passage.”  Correll lived in the leather business for 50 years, from childhood up to when he left the business to return to Yale for an MBA.

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Widow Susan Road

Susan Thomas, born in Perth in 1821, married Harmanus DeGraff in 1838. They lived at the bottom of the road on the east side.  Harmanus died around 1848, leaving Susan with the farm and several children.

Spent most of their time looking for food

Wednesday, October 26, 2022- Episode 438-Ricardo Herrera is author of Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778.  Herrera is visiting professor at the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Learning to be a leatherman

By Bob Cudmore 

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

   Rod, who lived some years in Gloversville, is descended from two important figures in the leather industry. 

   His grandfather, a German immigrant, founded Herman Loewenstein Incorporated in 1893, a respected export-import firm in New York City.

   Loewenstein’s son Rudy headed the business in the 1940s.  The son adopted his mother’s name, Correll, as his last name.  He purchased the Ellithorp tannery in Gloversville (formerly Cain’s tannery) in 1941 to prepare leather for his products.

   Rudy Correll’s company served the women’s high fashion shoe and handbag industries.   

   Rudy also created a New York City showroom to display colorful leather shoes and handbags to manufacturers and retailers.

   Born in 1935, Rod Correll worked summers learning about the family business, starting when he was about ten.  In New York City their company was in what was called The Swamp, the leather district near the Brooklyn Bridge. 

   When Rod was 17 his father offered him a “business before pleasure” deal.  The young man could take a bicycle trip through Scotland and England if he agreed to get his hands dirty for two weeks learning the ropes at the W.M.J. Martin tannery in Glasgow, Scotland. 

   “That was Rudy’s mantra, business with pleasure,” Rod said.  “He practiced that and preached it to me and I followed his rule.” 

   After his European adventure Rod came back to America, finished prep school, graduated from Yale in 1957 then worked at Herman Loewenstein.

   Within a few years Rudy suffered a stroke and heart attack.  “It was a stressful time,” Rod said. “My father kept control but he was not in a position to exercise that control.”  The firm’s executive vice president wanted to “move my father out.”

   Rod knew he had to understand how the Gloversville tannery worked “because it ended up that was where we were doing our business from.”

   Rod took over Herman Loewenstein when his father died in 1966.  The company and the industry were starting to fail.

   “Our customers in New York City, the shoe manufacturers and the handbag manufacturers were finding it very difficult to compete with imports.”

   After his father died bankers told Rod the company had been losing money for three years.  

   From 1971 to 1974 the firm did a phased withdrawal from New York City, moving operations to the Gloversville tannery.   

   Rod said, “We had 33 people in our operation in New York City and I had to let 30 of them go or find ways to transition them.

   “We offered them jobs in Gloversville.  It really didn’t make sense. Most of these people were in their 50s even some in their 60s.”

   Rod found a new product to make and sell, women’s cowhide boots.  That kept the struggling firm afloat several more years.  By 1979 a conglomerate bought the company. 

   Rod’s involvement with leather making ended in 1983 when he went back to Yale for a seminar and further M.B.A. training on leadership and motivation.

   Rod said, “I love the industry.  I had some wonderful times but it had not been my choice.  It had been my Dad’s choice.” 

   Rod and his wife Chloe live at Avila, a retirement community in Albany.  He sees his new book as a “legacy document” for their children.

   Rod has worked with the Family Firm Institute.  He advocates for building family companies that are not only financially successful but also rewarding places to work.  Rod said, “I learned how to build a group that trusted one another.”  

Thursday, October 27, 2022-From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—--How the town of Florida got its name.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, October 24, 2022

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Amsterdam’s Guy Park Manor to be restored as educational, park site
AMSTERDAM — The restoration of historic Guy Park Manor is finally underway in Amsterdam through a project that will make…https://dailygazette.com/

 Norm Bollen of the Fort Plain Museum says a film crew spent time in the Mohawk Valley in September scouting locations and shooting video for possible use in a Ken Burns documentary series on the American Revolution and Bob Cudmore and Dave Greene set the wayback machine for 1947 for tales of carpet school, the mill shutdown and big bands.

WCSS Radio Amsterdam 106.9FM this afternoon two Historians Podcasts

12:05 Norm Bollen Fort Plain Museum

David Brooks Schoharie Crossing at 12:35

Historians Go Fund Me needs your help this Weekend

$150.00 by Sunday Night https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022

In The U.S. Mail

Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Dr, Scotia N.Y. 12302 Thanks

This Afternoon

Oneida County History Center

Sunday, October 23, 2022

 Learning to be a Leatherman.

Born in 1935, Rod Correll worked summers learning about the family business, starting when he was about ten.  In New York City their company was in what was called The Swamp, the leather district near the Brooklyn Bridge.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, October 22, 2022

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   Rod said, “I love the industry.  I had some wonderful times but it had not been my choice.  It had been my Dad’s choice.” 

Friday, October 28, 2022-Episode 446- What’s it like to be the boss’s son?  Rod Correll is author of the memoir “Learning to Be a Leatherman-A Rite of Passage.”  Correll lived in the leather business for 50 years, from childhood up to when he left the business to return to Yale for an MBA.

Learning to be a leatherman

By Bob Cudmore 

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

   Rod, who lived some years in Gloversville, is descended from two important figures in the leather industry. 

   His grandfather, a German immigrant, founded Herman Loewenstein Incorporated in 1893, a respected export-import firm in New York City.

   Loewenstein’s son Rudy headed the business in the 1940s.  The son adopted his mother’s name, Correll, as his last name.  He purchased the Ellithorp tannery in Gloversville (formerly Cain’s tannery) in 1941 to prepare leather for his products.

   Rudy Correll’s company served the women’s high fashion shoe and handbag industries.   

   Rudy also created a New York City showroom to display colorful leather shoes and handbags to manufacturers and retailers.

   Born in 1935, Rod Correll worked summers learning about the family business, starting when he was about ten.  In New York City their company was in what was called The Swamp, the leather district near the Brooklyn Bridge. 

   When Rod was 17 his father offered him a “business before pleasure” deal.  The young man could take a bicycle trip through Scotland and England if he agreed to get his hands dirty for two weeks learning the ropes at the W.M.J. Martin tannery in Glasgow, Scotland. 

   “That was Rudy’s mantra, business with pleasure,” Rod said.  “He practiced that and preached it to me and I followed his rule.” 

   After his European adventure Rod came back to America, finished prep school, graduated from Yale in 1957 then worked at Herman Loewenstein.

   Within a few years Rudy suffered a stroke and heart attack.  “It was a stressful time,” Rod said. “My father kept control but he was not in a position to exercise that control.”  The firm’s executive vice president wanted to “move my father out.”

   Rod knew he had to understand how the Gloversville tannery worked “because it ended up that was where we were doing our business from.”

   Rod took over Herman Loewenstein when his father died in 1966.  The company and the industry were starting to fail.

   “Our customers in New York City, the shoe manufacturers and the handbag manufacturers were finding it very difficult to compete with imports.”

   After his father died bankers told Rod the company had been losing money for three years.  

   From 1971 to 1974 the firm did a phased withdrawal from New York City, moving operations to the Gloversville tannery.   

   Rod said, “We had 33 people in our operation in New York City and I had to let 30 of them go or find ways to transition them.

   “We offered them jobs in Gloversville.  It really didn’t make sense. Most of these people were in their 50s even some in their 60s.”

   Rod found a new product to make and sell, women’s cowhide boots.  That kept the struggling firm afloat several more years.  By 1979 a conglomerate bought the company. 

   Rod’s involvement with leather making ended in 1983 when he went back to Yale for a seminar and further M.B.A. training on leadership and motivation.

   Rod said, “I love the industry.  I had some wonderful times but it had not been my choice.  It had been my Dad’s choice.” 

   Rod and his wife Chloe live at Avila, a retirement community in Albany.  He sees his new book as a “legacy document” for their children.

   Rod has worked with the Family Firm Institute.  He advocates for building family companies that are not only financially successful but also rewarding places to work.  Rod said, “I learned how to build a group that trusted one another.” 

Tomorrow, Monday, October 24, 2022-The story behind the story.  Learning to be a Leatherman.

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Widow Susan Road

The reputed haunting of Widow Susan Road in the town of Amsterdam by Widow Susan DeGraff still gets attention from ghost hunters.  The road runs from Chapman Drive (formerly Route 5) up a hill to Route 67.

Wednesday, October 26, 2022- Episode 438-Ricardo Herrera is author of Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778.  Herrera is visiting professor at the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. 

Thursday, October 27, 2022-From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—--How the town of Florida got its name.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Sunday, October 23, 2022

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