The Historians

Bob Cudmore-Diana Waite talk buildings

Diana Waite on “The Architecture of Downtown Troy: An Illustrated History.” Waite, who lives in Troy, served a decade as executive director of the Preservation League of New York State.

In The Works for October, "The Leatherman" the story starts about 1895

Tomorrow, Thursday, September 29, 2022

Print Story

Bobby Kennedy in Amsterdam

Bobby Kennedy had visited Amsterdam on September 17 1960 when his brother Jack was running for President.  The younger Kennedy, then 34, addressed a fund raiser for the Montgomery County Democratic Committee at St. John’s Hall, now the Elks Lodge. 

This Friday, September 30, 2022

Episode 442

Veteran Associated Press reporter Chris Carola, now a freelance writer, takes a look at the life of Revolutionary War era Mohawk chief Joseph Brant.   A warrior and diplomat, Brant is memorialized with a sculpture on the outside of the New York State capitol building in Albany.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, September 28, 2022

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On his famous and successful whistle-stop campaign tour of 1948, Harry Truman came to Amsterdam and addressed a crowd from the back of a train on October 8.  Former Mayor Carter introduced him.  Truman was running against New York Governor Thomas Dewey.

Presidential visits in the Mohawk Valley

By Bob Cudmore

American Presidential connections with the Mohawk Valley mostly have to do with these great men passing through our region, starting with George Washington.

Washington visited the Mohawk Valley 225 years ago, as was reenacted in Fort Plain this past summer.  He was still General Washington when he toured the battle-scarred region at the conclusion of fighting in the American Revolution in 1783. 

After President Abraham Lincoln was shot in 1865, his body was embalmed and went on its final journey back to Illinois by train, including a stop in Amsterdam. 

TEDDY ROOSEVELT

While the name Nathan Littauer has been immortalized by the Gloversville hospital that bears his name, it was Nathan’s son Lucius who gave the money to make the hospital and other worthwhile projects a reality.

Lucius N. Littauer grew up in Gloversville but went off to Harvard when he was only 15, where he roomed with future governor and president Theodore Roosevelt.  Lucius Littauer served in Congress for five terms. 

Theodore Roosevelt was popular in Amsterdam where the long gone junior high was named in his honor in 1925.  The principal of the school in the 1950s, Fritz Heil, used to tell students how he got to shake Theodore Roosevelt’s hand during one of his Amsterdam visits.

Roosevelt spoke in Amsterdam at least four times in 1898, 1900, 1910 and 1914.  When he died in 1919, the city held a Roosevelt Day in which clergymen paid tribute to “the great statesman.”

FDR

Amsterdam Mayor Arthur Carter was a friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Carter had worked in state government in Albany and got to know FDR when he was Governor.  That friendship was credited for the city receiving federal aid for the municipal golf course, named for Carter, and other Depression-era projects.

TRUMAN

On his famous and successful whistle-stop campaign tour of 1948, Harry Truman came to Amsterdam and addressed a crowd from the back of a train on October 8.  Former Mayor Carter introduced him.  Truman was running against New York Governor Thomas Dewey.

Truman paid tribute to the way Amsterdam had turned its peacetime factories to doing work for the military in World War II.  The city’s carpet mills, for example, made canvas for tents and protective covers for gun turrets and all kinds of military objects.

And Truman, locked in a battle with a Republican Congress, wrapped up with a partisan plea, “I want to get every voter who is entitled to the privilege on the books, then I want him on the 2d of November to get up very early in the morning to go to the polls and vote the Democratic ticket straight---then the country will be safe for another four years and I won't have a housing problem myself.”

JFK

On September 29, 1960, John F. Kennedy spoke to a crowd in the municipal parking lot between Grove and Main Streets in Amsterdam during his campaign against Richard Nixon.

“Amsterdam, New York and Boston, Massachusetts, have many things in common,” the Massachusetts Senator said. “They are among the oldest cities of the United States, and like all old cities, they meet the same problems which come with maturity, with age.  Our responsibility, those of us who live in the urban centers of the United States, is to try to rebuild our cities and their economies so that they can serve as a place of vitality in the economic life of the United States.”

The texts of the speeches by Kennedy and Truman can be found on Amsterdam native David Pietrusza’s Web site, www.davidpietrusza.com  Pietrusza’s latest book deals with Presidential politics, “1960: JFK vs. LBJ vs. Nixon.”

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

A 29 minute slice of History

Bob Cudmore-Diana Waite conversation

From the Archives- November 15, 2019-Episode 292-Diana Waite on “The Architecture of Downtown Troy: An Illustrated History.” Waite, who lives in Troy, served a decade as executive director of the Preservation League of New York State.

Thursday, September 29, 2022

From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—Bobby Kennedy in Amsterdam

A memorial service for Senator Kennedy was held June 9 at what was then Amsterdam’s Lynch High School.  The speaker was Robert Lincoln Hatch...

Friday, September 30, 2022

The short of it "why is there a sculpture of Joseph Brant on the building?

Episode 442

Veteran Associated Press reporter Chris Carola, now a freelance writer, takes a look at the life of Revolutionary War era Mohawk chief Joseph Brant.   A warrior and diplomat, Brant is memorialized with a sculpture on the outside of the New York State capitol building in Albany.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, September 27, 2022

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It's New and Up on the site, early this Friday

...Brant traveled to England

Friday, September 30, 2022-Episode 442-Veteran Associated Press reporter Chris Carola, now a freelance writer, takes a look at the life of Revolutionary War era Mohawk chief Joseph Brant.   A warrior and diplomat, Brant is memorialized with a sculpture on the outside of the New York State capitol building in Albany.

Monday, September 26, 2022

The story behind the story podcast-Chalmers Mill

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Presidential visits in the Mohawk Valley

Theodore Roosevelt was popular in Amsterdam where the long gone junior high was named in his honor in 1925.  The principal of the school in the 1950s, Fritz Heil, used to tell students how he got to shake Theodore Roosevelt’s hand

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

From the Archives- November 15, 2019-Episode 292-Diana Waite on “The Architecture of Downtown Troy: An Illustrated History.” Waite, who lives in Troy, served a decade as executive director of the Preservation League of New York State.

Thursday, September 29, 2022

From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—Bobby Kennedy in Amsterdam

Assassin Sirhan Sirhan and som believe a second gunman shotat Kennedy early on the morning of June 5 as the Presidential candidate was being escorted through the crowded kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after announcing his victory in the California Democratic primary.  Kennedy died of his injuries the next day, June 6.

Friday, September 30, 2022

Episode 442

Veteran Associated Press reporter Chris Carola, now a freelance writer, takes a look at the life of Revolutionary War era Mohawk chief Joseph Brant.   A warrior and diplomat, Brant is memorialized with a sculpture on the outside of the New York State capitol building in Albany.

Chalmers on Amsterdam’s South Side

By Bob Cudmore

   David W. Chalmers and partners were the last industrialists to start a major knitting mill in Amsterdam. 

   Chalmers, John Blood, John Barnes and Howard Hanson founded Chalmers Knitting Company in 1901 in a factory building on Washington Street north of the Mohawk River.  

   An Amsterdam knitting expert, Martin J. Shaughnessey, had discovered a way to knit fabric and leave tiny holes to allow air to reach the body of the wearer.  Shaughnessy worked for Chalmers and they called the breathable fabric Porosknit. 

   Chalmers advertised in a spectacular way for a decade with a large lighted sign high above New York’s Times Square, touting Porosknit underwear and other products.  Historian Hugh Donlon wrote that Amsterdamians who visited the big city “gawked” at the huge sign. 

   In 1912 Chalmers and partners moved knitting operations to a four story brick building they constructed on the south side of the Mohawk River in Amsterdam. 

   Turner Construction of Amsterdam built a seven-story concrete addition to the Chalmers factory in 1916.   Many of the employees were Italian-Americans who walked to the mill from their South Side homes.

   It was not easy work.  “How many times we used to come home from work and cry because it was a bad day,” said Elizabeth Sardonia in an interview with Daily Gazette.  “But you went to work the next day just the same, and punched that clock.”

   Turner Construction built a mansion on Guy Park Avenue for David Chalmers and his wife Emsie.  A friend of Thomas Edison, Chalmers had electric lamps at his home and a third floor ballroom.  The mansion is still in private hands and at last report was for sale.

    The South Side knitting mill was sold in 1945 to Lester Martin of New York City who continued to manufacture underwear under the Chalmers name.  In 1946, Martin’s controller Joel Kaplan began making trips to Amsterdam from his native New York City to inventory the Chalmers operation.   

   David Chalmers died in 1950 at his Guy Park Avenue home.  In 1955, Kaplan moved to Amsterdam to oversee the Chalmers plant, which at one time during Martin’s ownership employed 650 people.

   Martin died in 1959 and the Chalmers mill closed that year.  Textile operations continued, however, at the former Chalmers building, purchased by Edward Stern in 1962.  Stern had a knitting operation on the fourth floor. 

   Kaplan headed a new company named Montco that occupied the third floor, manufacturing women’s sportswear.  Montco had a second factory in Johnstown.

   Stern closed his Amsterdam operation in 1978 and Montco closed in 1980 as textile manufacturing moved overseas. 

   Kaplan said that Montco production supervisor Beatrice Fredericks and 30 other women started their own company in the Chalmers building in 1980.  They produced clothing there until about 1985. 

   Kaplan was active in numerous non-profits in particular the Amsterdam Free Library.  He died in 2015.

   In the early 2000s, Long Island developer Uri Kaufman proposed creation of a luxury apartment complex using the Chalmers building.  Kaufman has created apartment complexes from former mill buildings in Cohoes.  

   The Chalmers building was placed on the National Historic Register in 2010.  But there was opposition to Kaufman’s plan on the Amsterdam Common Council. 

   The Gazette reported, “That plan fell apart amid the housing market collapse, trouble with the title to the property and a general desire by many to have the eyesore gone and the site available for redevelopment.”

   The Chalmers building was torn down over several months, starting in late 2011 and finishing in 2012.

   The Chalmers site is now adjacent to the entrance to Amsterdam’s popular pedestrian bridge, the Mohawk Valley Gateway Overlook.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, September 26, 2022

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It was not easy work.  “How many times we used to come home from work and cry because it was a bad day,” said Elizabeth Sardonia in an interview with Daily Gazette.  “But you went to work the next day just the same, and punched that clock.”

Chalmers on Amsterdam’s South Side

By Bob Cudmore

   David W. Chalmers and partners were the last industrialists to start a major knitting mill in Amsterdam. 

   Chalmers, John Blood, John Barnes and Howard Hanson founded Chalmers Knitting Company in 1901 in a factory building on Washington Street north of the Mohawk River.  

   An Amsterdam knitting expert, Martin J. Shaughnessey, had discovered a way to knit fabric and leave tiny holes to allow air to reach the body of the wearer.  Shaughnessy worked for Chalmers and they called the breathable fabric Porosknit. 

   Chalmers advertised in a spectacular way for a decade with a large lighted sign high above New York’s Times Square, touting Porosknit underwear and other products.  Historian Hugh Donlon wrote that Amsterdamians who visited the big city “gawked” at the huge sign. 

   In 1912 Chalmers and partners moved knitting operations to a four story brick building they constructed on the south side of the Mohawk River in Amsterdam. 

   Turner Construction of Amsterdam built a seven-story concrete addition to the Chalmers factory in 1916.   Many of the employees were Italian-Americans who walked to the mill from their South Side homes.

   It was not easy work.  “How many times we used to come home from work and cry because it was a bad day,” said Elizabeth Sardonia in an interview with Daily Gazette.  “But you went to work the next day just the same, and punched that clock.”

Tomorrow, Monday The Story Behind the Story "Posted Early" about 9 Minutes of ear time

   Turner Construction built a mansion on Guy Park Avenue for David Chalmers and his wife Emsie.  A friend of Thomas Edison, Chalmers had electric lamps at his home and a third floor ballroom.  The mansion is still in private hands and at last report was for sale.

    The South Side knitting mill was sold in 1945 to Lester Martin of New York City who continued to manufacture underwear under the Chalmers name.  In 1946, Martin’s controller Joel Kaplan began making trips to Amsterdam from his native New York City to inventory the Chalmers operation.   

   David Chalmers died in 1950 at his Guy Park Avenue home.  In 1955, Kaplan moved to Amsterdam to oversee the Chalmers plant, which at one time during Martin’s ownership employed 650 people.

   Martin died in 1959 and the Chalmers mill closed that year.  Textile operations continued, however, at the former Chalmers building, purchased by Edward Stern in 1962.  Stern had a knitting operation on the fourth floor. 

   Kaplan headed a new company named Montco that occupied the third floor, manufacturing women’s sportswear.  Montco had a second factory in Johnstown.

   Stern closed his Amsterdam operation in 1978 and Montco closed in 1980 as textile manufacturing moved overseas. 

   Kaplan said that Montco production supervisor Beatrice Fredericks and 30 other women started their own company in the Chalmers building in 1980.  They produced clothing there until about 1985. 

   Kaplan was active in numerous non-profits in particular the Amsterdam Free Library.  He died in 2015.

   In the early 2000s, Long Island developer Uri Kaufman proposed creation of a luxury apartment complex using the Chalmers building.  Kaufman has created apartment complexes from former mill buildings in Cohoes.  

   The Chalmers building was placed on the National Historic Register in 2010.  But there was opposition to Kaufman’s plan on the Amsterdam Common Council. 

   The Gazette reported, “That plan fell apart amid the housing market collapse, trouble with the title to the property and a general desire by many to have the eyesore gone and the site available for redevelopment.”

   The Chalmers building was torn down over several months, starting in late 2011 and finishing in 2012.

   The Chalmers site is now adjacent to the entrance to Amsterdam’s popular pedestrian bridge, the Mohawk Valley Gateway Overlook.

Monday, September 26, 2022- The story behind the story podcast-Chalmers Mill

Tuesday, September 27, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Presidential visits in the Mohawk Valley

Washington visited the Mohawk Valley 225 years ago, as was reenacted in Fort Plain this past summer.  He was still General Washington when he toured the battle-scarred region at the conclusion of fighting in the American Revolution in 1783. 

Wednesday, September 28, 2022- From the Archives- November 15, 2019-Episode 292-Diana Waite on “The Architecture of Downtown Troy: An Illustrated History.” Waite, who lives in Troy, served a decade as executive director of the Preservation League of New York State.

Thursday, September 29, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—Bobby Kennedy in Amsterdam

Friday, September 30, 2022-Episode 442-Veteran Associated Press reporter Chris Carola, now a freelance writer, takes a look at the life of Revolutionary War era Mohawk chief Joseph Brant.   A warrior and diplomat, Brant is memorialized with a sculpture on the outside of the New York State capitol building in Albany.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Sunday, September 25, 2022

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The Bob Cudmore interview with David Cooney from Utica

Army veteran and Utica College student David Cooney about upstate New York prisoner of war camps where German soldiers  were housed in World War II.  One such camp was near Fort Drum and another was in Utica.

The Historians Podcast yearly fund drive progress is good.  We need to raise $150.00 this weekend to meet the rent on the First of October.  Please "Pass the Hat" here- 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. Much Thanks to all the History Patrons.The Historians on the Web and Radio

The Latest Print story Posted Early Sunday

The South Side knitting mill was sold in 1945 to Lester Martin of New York City who continued to manufacture underwear under the Chalmers name.  In 1946...

Chalmers knitting mill on the South Side.

Just down(up) the road at Arkell Museum

The Remarkable, Irresistible Erie - A Musical Concert

http://www.arkellmuseum.org/events-calendar

Join us in the Great Hall of the Arkell Museum and Canajoharie Library for a 90 minute concert presenting songs and stories of the people, places, and the history of the original and enlarged Erie Canal. The concert features songs b folklorist and historian George Ward, Canadian Joe Grant, Dan Berggren and Jean Ritchie along with other familiar traditional Erie Canal Songs.

Episode 441-Giovanni Ruscitti of Colorado is author of the memoir Cobblestones, Conversations, and Corks: A Son’s Discovery of His Italian Heritage.  Ruscitti chronicles the history of his Italian immigrant family and a visit to his ancestral homeland of Abruzzo.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Saturday, September 24, 2022

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Duck and cover—Amsterdam and the atomic bomb

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History

          In 1950 Edward F. Cushman, then Amsterdam’s school superintendent, issued instructions for surviving an atomic bomb attack.

          As I recall it, atomic bomb drills sometimes involved getting under our desks and other times meant lining up against a basement wall at Amsterdam’s Vrooman Avenue School. 

          Amsterdam native Richard Sidlauscus, who now lives in Wallingford, Connecticut, found Cushman’s memo while preparing for a recent move.

          “I was six years old and in first grade in Irene Balz’s class in the old Arnold Avenue School,” Sidlauscus wrote.  “Why I have this I can't recall.  I think we found it among my mothers stuff after she passed away.”

          Cushman warned in his 1950 memo, “At the suggestion of the State Education Department of Albany, we are handing out directions for pupils in case of an unexpected atomic bomb attack.  While there seems to be no probability at the present time of such an attack, these atomic bomb attacks might come without warning and the State Education Department feels that parents should have some information immediately regarding possible safeguards and treatments.  Further information undoubtedly will be supplied by the local Civilian Defense Authorities.”

          Students were advised to get to cover if an air raid warning was given before the attack—a public shelter, the nearest building, your own cellar, even a tree “to shield you from burns” or a thick wall that was to protect you against gamma rays.

          If there was no warning and just a blinding glare in the sky, the superintendent advised pupils to turn their backs on the blast “and drop to ground with face on arm, eyes closed” for a full minute.

          If indoors, the memo advised students to drop to the floor or under desks, tables or beds with their backs to windows, “because of breaking glass.”  If there was time, the advice was to run to the basement.  In any event, the memo said to stay down for at least one minute.

          There were an equal number of points to remember after the attack, which was probably the encouraging news of the memo—the idea that boys and girls would survive the atomic bomb!

          “Wash yourself hard, all over,” Superintendent Cushman wrote.  “Lacking soap and water, rub with paper or cloth.  This cuts radioactive contamination (most likely after an underwater burst or if wind or rain spread air-burst radiation).

          “Eat and drink nothing that has been exposed to radioactivity.  Tight containers—probably cans—are the one sure protection.  A Geiger counter will spot radioactivity in food or clothing.

          “Obey the directions of proper authorities.  They must aid wounded, put out fires, clear streets, repair communications and so on.  In the first hours of a burst, you can help by doing just as you are told.” 

MORE POOL

          The first name of the expert pool player from Amsterdam who died in an auto accident around 1970 was incorrect in a recent column.  The correct name is Jimmy Corrigan, a protégé of Louis Allen who ran a pool hall on Market Street.

          Joe Inglese of the town of Florida has more memories of Dee's Billiard Lounge on Route 30 at Maple Avenue Extension in the town of Amsterdam, currently the site of a First Niagara Bank.

Inglese said, “My good friend the late Tony DaBiere of Tribes Hill owned that establishment. In earlier years, he had a small grocery store there. Tony knew the benefits of promoting billiards as a family activity.

“Tony had Peter Pan tables. I sat with him on many a Friday night while folks brought their youngsters in to enjoy a session of pool in the well-lit establishment.”

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, September 22, 2022

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Today

Dad operated a speakeasy or two in Saratoga       

Chris Carola, a veteran Associated Press reporter, is writing a book about Jack Wilpers, who grew up in Saratoga Springs, and the key role Wilpers played in the capture of former Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo in 1945.

Chirs Carola Later this Month

Friday, September 30, 2022-Episode 442-Veteran Associated Press reporter Chris Carola, now a freelance writer, looks at the life of Revolutionary War era Mohawk chief Joseph Brant.   A warrior and diplomat, Brant is memorialized with a sculpture on the outside of the New York State capitol building in Albany. 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, September 21, 2022

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RecorderNews

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Thursday "The Bob Story" it was all about the gamma rays

An Engineer with a Love of History

By Bob Cudmore

   C. Robb DeGraff of Amsterdam supervised construction of the 1930 Batchellerville Bridge over the Sacandaga Reservoir. DeGraff’s bridge over what is now known as Great Sacandaga Lake was replaced by a new, higher span on November 15, 2012. The original bridge, over 80 years old, is being torn down.

   In 1956 DeGraff drew a detailed map of the area flooded for the reservoir with numerous historical references. His map focuses on Fish House.

   "Fish House was an old stamping ground of mine," DeGraff told the Recorder. "I had relatives who used to operate a country store in that vicinity."

   Fish House got its name because Colonial leader Sir William Johnson had built a path in 1762 from his estate in Johnstown to a good fishing spot on the Sacandaga River. 

   In January, 1894 Fish House was the scene of a murder. DeGraff said, “The feud by hotel owners Walter Brown and 'Hi' Osborne resulted in murder of Osborne by Brown.  The Osborne Hotel burned in 1895."

   Fish House had a covered bridge over the Sacandaga River built in 1818 that was destroyed by the 1930 flooding that created the reservoir. Two thirds of Fish House was flooded. Fish House residents had wanted the 1930 bridge built in their area but officials chose Batchellerville instead. DeGraff said people in Fish House were never really satisfied with the reservoir construction.

The Historians Podcast 2022, organized by Bob Cudmore 

Go Fund Me 2022  $1300.00 and complete

 On-Line or The U.S. Mail Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

AN ENGINEER’S LIFE

   A native of Utica, DeGraff was born in 1882.  His family moved to Amsterdam and he graduated from Amsterdam High School, then studied civil engineering at New York University. After college he worked for the Schenectady Railway Company on trolley lines connecting Schenectady with Troy and Ballston Spa. 

   In 1905 he began almost 20 years of service with the New York State Engineering Department.  He was engineer in charge of highway and Mohawk River/Barge Canal projects including construction of canal lock bridges in Canajoharie, Amsterdam, Cranesville and Rexford. He married Eloise Milmine of Amsterdam in 1916. They had two children.

   In 1923 DeGraff left civil engineering for several years and became an official of a textile plant in Fall River, Massachusetts.

   When the Sacandaga Reservoir was created in 1930, DeGraff was appointed resident engineer for the Hudson River Regulating District to supervise construction of the Batchellerville Bridge.

   He was commissioner of public works for the city of Amsterdam during the administration of Republican Mayor Robert Brumagin from 1932 to 1934. In the late 1930s DeGraff became area director for New Deal Works Progress Administration public projects in seven counties with his headquarters in Utica. In the 1940s he was district engineer for the New York State health department.   

AMSTERDAM BYPASS

   One of DeGraff’s last acts of public service was to put forward an alternative to the highway plan proposed for Amsterdam after construction of the Thruway. In 1957 DeGraff sketched a proposed arterial highway that would have put a new bridge over the Mohawk River east of Amsterdam near Widow Susan Road. Route 30 traffic would use that road to bypass the city.

   DeGraff outlined his proposal during a Rotary Club speech and historian Hugh Donlon noted that a “considerable number” supported DeGraff’s bypass proposal. Donlon wrote people were starting to realize, “That arterials passing through the core of the city would necessitate drastic community surgery.”

   In a newspaper article, DeGraff said that his proposal may have defects but it would not cause the “congestion, expense and inconvenience” of building a new Route 30 through Amsterdam.

   DeGraff died in 1958. The highway plan that ultimately prevailed ignored DeGraff’s idea and sent Route 30 traffic through the center of Amsterdam.

Dad operated a speakeasy or two in Saratoga, part of the story tomorrow         

Chris Carola, a veteran Associated Press reporter, is writing a book about Jack Wilpers, who grew up in Saratoga Springs, and the key role Wilpers played in the capture of former Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo in 1945.

Thursday, September 22, 2022- Duck and cover 

Students were advised to get to cover if an air raid warning was given before the attack—a public shelter, the nearest building, your own cellar, even a tree “to shield you from burns” or a thick wall that was to protect you against gamma rays.

Friday, September 23, 2022-Episode 441-Giovanni Ruscitti of Colorado is author of the memoir Cobblestones, Conversations, and Corks: A Son’s Discovery of His Italian Heritage.  Ruscitti chronicles the history of his Italian immigrant family and a visit to his ancestral homeland of Abruzzo.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, September 20, 2022

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RecorderNews 

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Leader Herald

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The Historians Podcast 2022, organized by Bob Cudmore 

Go Fund Me 2022  $1300.00 and brought to pass

 On-Line or The U.S. Mail Bob Cudmore to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, September 20, 2022 we turn the page to a print story about an  engineer with a love of history.

C. Robb DeGraff A native of Utica, DeGraff was born in 1882 and you have seen his work  

Wednesday, September 21, 2022- From the Archives-Episode 348-Chris Carola, a veteran Associated Press reporter, is writing a book about Jack Wilpers, who grew up in Saratoga Springs, and the key role Wilpers played in the capture of former Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo in 1945.

Thursday, September 22, 2022- Duck and cover in 1950 with instructions for surviving an atomic bomb attack. (Good luck by the way)

Friday, September 23, 2022-Episode 441-Giovanni Ruscitti of Colorado is author of the memoir Cobblestones, Conversations, and Corks: A Son’s Discovery of His Italian Heritage.  Ruscitti chronicles the history of his Italian immigrant family and a visit to his ancestral homeland of Abruzzo.

Cobblestones, Conversations and Corks is a passionate and deeply moving story about a father-son relationship; a culture rooted in family, food and wine; and an ancestral small town in Central Italy that was left behind after World War II.

Markers kept prisoners from straying

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History from The Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder

   Back in 1840, jail limit markers were established throughout the state including Montgomery County after a ruling from the Court of Common Pleas.

   “They were introduced to provide a person who was in jail for a civil action the ability to leave the jail to work, visit family or to carry on other business,” said former Montgomery County Sheriff Michael J. Amato.

   Individuals locked up for bad debts, for example, could get a job close to the jail, as long they stayed within the limits of the stone markers.  The prisoners left the lockup at sunrise and had to return by sunset.  It was a 19th century voluntary version of electronic bracelets for non-violent prisoners.

   Amato said county supervisors set the boundaries of the markers, which could not exceed one mile in each direction from the jail.  Montgomery County had eight markers.  Amato had one of the markers installed near the entrance of the current jail on Route 5S in Fultonville.  The marker is still there, according to current Sheriff Jeff Smth.

   “The last time the markers were used was about 1913,” Amato said.  “I think that we might be one of the only counties with jail limit markers left.”

   Amato has done research on the history of local jails.  In 1772, Tryon County was created during the British colonial era.  Johnstown became the county seat of the sprawling jurisdiction that covered much of Upstate New York west of Albany County.  A jail was built in Johnstown that year and the building still stands, although no longer used as a jail.

   At the end of the Revolution in 1784, Tryon County was renamed for patriot General Richard Montgomery and in 1836, the county seat was moved to Fonda.  There was such an outcry from the people of Johnstown that they were granted their own county, Fulton County, split off from northern Montgomery County in 1837.

   By 1838, a jail and courthouse had been built in Fonda at a cost of $30,500.  The jail was located where the Department of Public Works facility is today, behind the Old Courthouse. 

   In 1881, that jail was destroyed by fire.  According to a newspaper account, the fire was started at 3 a.m. by inmate Patrick Claffey, described as a “desperate character,” jailed for breaking into a store in St. Johnsville.  Sheriff William Scharff was awakened and found it impossible to put out the blaze.  The 22 prisoners were safely removed to the courthouse where they were “strongly guarded” until they could be taken to the jail in Johnstown.

   A new jail was built in Fonda and occupied in late 1882 at a cost of $40,000.  “Although secure, the jail is free from dampness and has plenty of light,” stated an article in the Mohawk Valley Democrat.  The state closed that jail because of poor conditions in 1911 and again inmates were sent to Fulton County.  In 1913, a jail was built adjacent to the Old Courthouse at a cost of $55,000. 

   This building was used as a jail until 1997 when it was shut down because of state requirements.  Amato recalled a 1996 flood in Fonda helped convince county officials of the wisdom of relocating the county jail from its location near the river in Fonda to the present facility on higher ground in Fultonville.  The current jail was built at a cost of $14 million

          Among artifacts Amato displayed during a talk years ago was an old set of jail keys and a sharp wooden letter opener carved by an inmate in the 1920s, a recreational pastime that would be frowned upon today.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Monday, September 19, 2022

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