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...Bijou was located on the south side of East Main at Leffert Street in the East End.  It occupied a former stable where the Little Giant Sleigh factory started manufacturing sleighs in 1884.

...oh, that's what the mail box is used for

 Please donate online 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. Keep history alive at The Historians Podcast-where we’re working on Episode 420 that will post and air April 29, 2022 on the history of organ transplants.

Bijou rug and carpet

By Bob Cudmore

Mohawk Carpet Mills and Bigelow-Sanford made Amsterdam’s reputation as the Carpet City.  There were other carpet mills.  One factory that had a brief existence was Bijou Rug and Carpet.  The word “bijou” is of French origin and means an intricately wrought trinket.

An October 5, 1886 headline from the Amsterdam Daily Democrat was printed in a recent column.  On that date the Bijou factory was destroyed by fire.

Jerry Snyder, co-author with Robert von Hasseln of the picture history book “Amsterdam,” did some digging and found that Bijou Rug had begun operations only six months before the fire.

Bijou was located on the south side of East Main at Leffert Street in the East End.  It occupied a former stable where the Little Giant Sleigh factory started manufacturing sleighs in 1884.

The October 29, 1884 Daily Democrat reported that John Russell of Little Giant had disposed of his interest in the sleigh company to carpet maker Herbert L. Shuttleworth. 

Snyder wrote, “The sleigh company was still in business on October 5, 1885 when their "commercial traveler" (salesman?) set out on his first trip, heading for Pittsfield and Boston.  I guess his trip wasn't a huge success as on February 3, 1886, the Democrat reported that the entire on-hand stock of the company (1800 sleighs) was sold to Henry L. Smith of Albany, who had previously purchased 1500 sleighs from them.”

On April 29, 1886 the Democrat wrote that the Amsterdam Rug company had filed a copartnership with the city clerk.  Members were Dr. E. T. Rulison, John W. Hill, Luther Ensign and F. S. Gardinier. 

The Democrat account continued, “Smyrna rugs similar to those turned out by Howgate, McCleary & Company (another local rug maker) will be manufactured.  The company will occupy the Little Giant sleigh factory.  Dr. Rulison will be the financial man of the concern, while the others will have charge of the work in the factory."

Bijou Rug suspended operations little more than two weeks later on May 15, 1886.  The Democrat reported that the company had bought machinery from the Sanford carpet mill and an engine and boiler from Little Giant.  Then Gardinier withdrew from the enterprise and went into the grocery business, taking over the former Miller & McConnell store on Grand Street. 

The Democrat wrote, “A gentleman, who for a while thought seriously of taking his place, after looking the matter over, decided not to do so.  Dr. Rulison found that too much responsibility was being thrown upon his hands and that the enterprise would require more of his time than he expected and more than he could spare from his professional duties.

“The yarn, etc. which had been purchased was shipped back to those from whom it was bought and the machinery, engine and boiler are offered for sale. An excellent opportunity is offered for men with a small amount of capital to engage in business that could hardly fail to prove remunerative.”

Five months later the Bijou factory was destroyed by a fire that may been set.  There was $800 insurance on the building (owned by a man from Illinois) and $3000 on its contents.  The alarm was sounded from the bell of the First Baptist Church but three fire companies arrived too late to save the structure.  Two horses were badly scorched.  In 1893 a Methodist Church was built on the site.  That building is now used by St. Mary’s Hospital.

Tomorrow, Friday, April 8, 2022

Episode 417-Bryan Jackson is author of Why the Titanic Was Doomed.

New in The Gazette and Recorder this Weekend  

Saturday, April 9, 2022- Focus on History in the Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder-John Philip Sousa’s friendship with Jessie Zoller from St. Johnsville.

Bruce Dearstyne on The Historians

Friday, April 15, 2022 Episode 418-Bruce Dearstyne is encouraging New Yorkers to celebrate April 20 as the birthday of the Empire State.  The first New York State constitution was adopted April 20, 1777 during a momentous year for the state during the Revolutionary War.  Bruce Dearstyne was formerly on the staff of the Office of State History and the State Archives.  He has written books and articles on New York State history.

Empire State Engagements is a long-form interview program created and hosted by Dr. Robert Chiles. It features conversations with historians of all aspects of New York State.

A conversation with Dr. Bruce W. Dearstyne about his New York History article "The Debut of the Administrative State in New York" (102.2), as well as his books The Crucible of Public Policy (Albany: SUNY Press, 2022) and The Spirit of New York 2nd ed. (Albany: SUNY Press, 2022). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXBPEdgab4A

https://www.empirestateengagements.com/episodes#dearstyne

Amsterdam and Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, April 7, 2022

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Andrew Pugliese

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Historians Radio Schedule

The Historians Podcast is heard on WCSS in Amsterdam, 1490 AM and 106.9 FM, following the Noon news on Saturday.  Historians Podcast is also carried on RISE, WMHT’s radio service for the blind, Monday at 11:30 a.m. and Wednesday at 11:00 a.m.  And listen to The Historians 5:30 p.m. Sunday on WBDY 99.5 FM in Binghamton.

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...Bob continues to read The New Yorker, but never paid for it

From the Archives-Episode 366-Harold Schechter is author of “Maniac: the Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer.”

Harold Schechter, Amazon Charts bestselling author of Hell’s Princess, unearths a nearly forgotten true crime of obsession and revenge, and one of the first - and worst - mass murders in American history.

In 1927, while the majority of the township of Bath, Michigan, was celebrating a new primary school - one of the most modern in the Midwest - Andrew P. Kehoe had other plans. The local farmer and school board treasurer was educated, respected, and an accommodating neighbor and friend.

This is The Historians Mailbox, held together with "bailing wire"

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The Historians Podcast 2022 fund drive now totals $1900.00.  That’s almost 32% of our $6,000 goal.  Please donate online 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. 

Tomorrow, Thursday, April 7, 2022

From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Bijou Carpet in Amsterdam. 

Mohawk Carpet Mills and Bigelow-Sanford made Amsterdam’s reputation as the Carpet City.  There were other carpet mills.  One factory that had a brief existence was Bijou Rug and Carpet.  The word “bijou” is of French origin and means an intricately wrought trinket.

Podcast edit is complete, New this Friday, April 8, 2022

Episode 417-Bryan Jackson is author of Why the Titanic Was Doomed. 

Titanic, the most magnificent ocean liner of her time, was destined for disaster before she left the docks at Southampton according to Jackson--doomed by her owner, designers and the men who sailed her.

Everybody loves a Parade

Saturday, April 9, 2022- Focus on History in the Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder-John Philip Sousa’s friendship with Jessie Zoller from St. Johnsville.

Amsterdam and Mohawk Valley Weather, Wednesday, April 6, 2022

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...The Penn State Web site reported, “His basic discoveries in ferroelectric materials have helped propel the growth of electronic devices such as cell phones, 

Ultrasound pioneer an Amsterdam native

By Bob Cudmore        

An Amsterdam native who died this year in Pennsylvania was a prominent scientist whose research helped make ultrasound machines and cell phones possible.

Robert Newnham was born in 1929 in Amsterdam and died April 16 at Penn State Hershey Medical Center at age 80, according to the Centre Daily Times of State College, Pennsylvania.

His parents were William Newnham and Dorothy Hamm Newnham, a janitor and a telephone operator.  Newnham was the first in his family to go to college, earning his bachelor’s degree at Hartwick College in Oneonta. 

Newnham earned advanced degrees at Colorado State, Penn State and Cambridge University in England.  Before joining Penn State’s faculty to teach materials science in 1966, he taught at Cambridge University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

According to his obituary, Newnham’s designs for transducers, devices that convert energy from one form to another, helped make ultrasound imaging possible.

The Penn State Web site reported, “His basic discoveries in ferroelectric materials have helped propel the growth of electronic devices such as cell phones, while his work for the U.S. Navy on sonar arrays helped the Navy keep a watchful eye on Soviet submarines during the Cold War. One of his 20 patents, pertaining to off-shore oil explorations, has generated more than a million dollars in licensing fees for the University.”

Described by a colleague as a giant in science, Newnham and his wife Patricia were said to be unabashed supporters of liberal causes and the local peace movement.  Newnham’s daughter Rosemary Newnham said her parents would invite as many as 30 graduate students for Thanksgiving dinner.  She said her father would explain the American Thanksgiving custom to his foreign guests and display their gifts of curry and sushi on the Thanksgiving table.

She also said her father had a “goofy sense of humor” and would paint mustaches on the tiny pilots in his extensive model airplane collection to match his own mustache.

Bernadine Olbrych of Amsterdam suggested this story.

COLONIAL HORSE RACING

The Saratoga season is in high gear and Wanda Burch, site manager of Johnson Hall State Historic Site in Johnstown, has been researching horse racing in Colonial days.

“The sport of horse racing was an integral part of American culture long before the American Revolution,” Burch said.

In 1748, prominent colonist Sir William Johnson was complaining, according to Burch, “that most of the good New York horses were snatched up by New England and Philadelphia jockeys at ‘Extravigant prices.’” 

Racing horses at a specialized racetrack was developed at Newmarket in England by 1622.   America’s first racetrack was called Newmarket in honor of the old country and established on Long Island in 1665. 

Burch said, “Johnson purchased prints of the racehorses at Newmarket in England and hung them in the best rooms at Johnson Hall, his 1763 home. He made references to bets on races and was particularly taken with a horse born in 1764 named Goldfinder, whose image had a prominent place on the wall of his best parlor.  Goldfinder raced at Newmarket in England and was undefeated in three years of racing.”      

Burch said horse thievery was a big issue in the colonies, “Hundreds of letters dealt with complaints of stolen horses and even Johnson's brother lamented in his journal that ‘there are no highwaymen in America, but great Horse stealers.’"

According to Burch, Johnson took great care in ordering bridles, harnesses and saddles, “Brass work on harnesses was important, and a particularly expensive saddle ordered for Sir William's son John had ‘blue housings, elegant stirrups, English made’ and was described as a ‘handsome’ parade saddle with a secret compartment in the pommel for pistols.”

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

From the Archives-April 16, 2021-Episode 366-Harold Schechter is author of “Maniac: the Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer.”

Thursday, April 7, 2022

From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Bijou Carpet in Amsterdam. 

This Friday, April 8, 2022

Episode 417-Bryan Jackson is author of Why the Titanic Was Doomed. 

Titanic, the most magnificent ocean liner of her time, was destined for disaster before she left the docks at Southampton according to Jackson--doomed by her owner, designers and the men who sailed her.

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation 

https://parks.ny.gov/historic-preservation/business-registry/default.aspx

Local businesses are the backbone of villages, towns and cities across the state and have helped to shape the history, heritage, and identity of the communities they serve. New York State's Historic Business Preservation Registry was established by Chapter 241 of the Laws of 2020. The program is administered by the Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, and highlights businesses that have been in operation for at least 50 years and have contributed to their communities' history.

Amsterdam and Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, April 5, 2022

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Mayfield downs Broadalbin-Perth in softball

Heather Ginter had a single, double and three-run home run in helping Mayfield to a 13-7...

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ANew Leaf

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...as soon as we can find the notes

The 17th annual Canal Clean Sweep hosted on Earth Day weekend! "Down the Page"

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$500.00 the goal for April

$6000.00 the Goal for 2022

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Monday, April 4, 2022-The story behind the story podcast on local angles and a new book on the sinking of the Titanic 110 years ago this month.

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History

   The Amsterdam Recorder had a solid local angle when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic.

   Monday, April 15, 1912 the newspaper reported, “There was much local interest aroused today in the mishap to the Titanic through the fact that an Amsterdam girl was numbered among the first class passengers.” 

   Jane Forby Hoyt was on the vessel with her husband Fred.  Jane had lived on Chestnut Street in Amsterdam when she was growing up, the daughter of Frank and Emmeline Forby. 

   A stenographer, Jane married Fred Hoyt, a partner in a New York lace importing firm who was a yachtsman.  The Hoyts were returning on the Titanic’s maiden voyage after touring Europe and Egypt.

   Jane was put on one of the last lifeboats.  Donning a life vest Fred went to a lower deck and jumped into the water.  He grabbed a piece of wreckage to stay afloat.

   The crew of the lifeboat Jane was in pulled Fred from the water and the two were reunited.  Several hours later, the Cunard liner Carpathia picked up their lifeboat.    

   Jane lived until age 55.  Fred died at age 67.  They had no children.

   Longtime reporter and public relations official Bryan Jackson has written a new book called “Why The Titanic Was Doomed.”

   According to Jackson, another Capital District survivor was Gilbert Tucker of Albany who had been traveling with his family in Europe.  

   Jackson said, “The interesting thing is he was very embarrassed by the fact that he survived the sinking when so many others had perished.  And I did interview a guy who knew him and he said you were never to mention Titanic in front of (Tucker).  He was very sensitive about it.”

   Jackson has been interested in the Titanic, the most magnificent ocean liner of her time, since he was a child.   He said the ship was destined for disaster before leaving the docks at Southampton because of mistakes made by her owner, designers and by the men who sailed her.

   My grandfather Harry Cudmore had come to Amsterdam from England to work as a silk weaver at Fownes, an Amsterdam glove mill, in 1911. His eldest son came with him. 

   Family legend has it that Harry’s wife Elizabeth and four of her children, including my father, were to come to America on the Titanic.  But grandmother dallied so long that they missed the doomed ship in April 1912.  They made an uneventful crossing later that year on a ship named the Majestic.

   A New York City area woman who survived the sinking of the Titanic, Marie Grice Young, died in 1959 at what was then Mount Loretto Nursing Home on Swart Hill Road in the Town of Amsterdam at age 83. 

   A native of Washington, D.C., Young was well connected, having given music lessons to President Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter Ethel.  She was rescued on one of the first lifeboats to leave the Titanic.

   After the disaster Young felt compelled to write to President William Howard Taft to deny a published report that she had conversed with Presidential aide Archibald Butt as the disaster unfolded.  Butt, who died with the ship, was military attaché to both Presidents Roosevelt and Taft.

   Butt supposedly asked Young to “remember (him) to all the folks back home."

   Young wrote, “The alleged interview is entirely an invention.”  

   She added, “When I last saw Major Butt, he was walking on deck, with Mr. Clarence Moore, on Sunday afternoon.”

   Young was living in New York City when she entered Mount Loretto.  One relative listed in her obituary was a great niece in Loudonville.

Historians Go Fund Me 2022 https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022

$500.00 the goal for April

$6000.00 the Goal for 2022

As of today, Monday, April 4, 2022

$1850.00

Thank You to Anonymous (Yes, you can do that)

The U.S. Mail or On-line

A check made out to Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  

Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 5, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette- Ultrasound pioneer an Amsterdam man.

An Amsterdam native who died this year in Pennsylvania was a prominent scientist whose research helped make ultrasound machines and cell phones possible. Robert Newnham... 

Wednesday, April 6, 2022-From the Archives-April 16, 2021-Episode 366-Harold Schechter is author of “Maniac: the Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer.”

Thursday, April 7, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Bijou Carpet in Amsterdam. 

This Friday, April 8, 2022 Episode 417-Bryan Jackson is author of Why the Titanic Was Doomed. 

Titanic, the most magnificent ocean liner of her time, was destined for disaster before she left the docks at Southampton according to Jackson--doomed by her owner, designers and the men who sailed her.

The 17th annual Canal Clean Sweep hosted on Earth Day weekend!
Each Earth Day, the NYS Canal Corporation and Parks & Trails New York host Canal Clean Sweep, a weekend of spring cleaning on sections of the Canalway Trail, in canalside parks, and in other public areas throughout the Canal corridor.

https://www.ptny.org/events/canal-clean-sweep

This year, Canal Clean Sweep will be held on the weekend of April 22-24, 2022, with events also occurring in the weeks leading up to and after that weekend.

Amsterdam and Mohawk Valley Weather for a new week, Monday, April 4, 2022

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... Jane was put on one of the last lifeboats.  Donning a life vest Fred went to a lower deck and jumped into the water.  He grabbed a piece of wreckage to stay afloat.

...in the Gazette

The ship that sank 110 years ago

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History

   The Amsterdam Recorder had a solid local angle when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic.

   Monday, April 15, 1912 the newspaper reported, “There was much local interest aroused today in the mishap to the Titanic through the fact that an Amsterdam girl was numbered among the first class passengers.” 

   Jane Forby Hoyt was on the vessel with her husband Fred.  Jane had lived on Chestnut Street in Amsterdam when she was growing up, the daughter of Frank and Emmeline Forby. 

   A stenographer, Jane married Fred Hoyt, a partner in a New York lace importing firm who was a yachtsman.  The Hoyts were returning on the Titanic’s maiden voyage after touring Europe and Egypt.

   Jane was put on one of the last lifeboats.  Donning a life vest Fred went to a lower deck and jumped into the water.  He grabbed a piece of wreckage to stay afloat.

   The crew of the lifeboat Jane was in pulled Fred from the water and the two were reunited.  Several hours later, the Cunard liner Carpathia picked up their lifeboat.    

   Jane lived until age 55.  Fred died at age 67.  They had no children.

Tomorrow, Monday, April 4, 2022-The story behind the story podcast on local angles and a new book on the sinking of the Titanic 110 years ago this month.

   Longtime reporter and public relations official Bryan Jackson has written a new book called “Why The Titanic Was Doomed.”

   According to Jackson, another Capital District survivor was Gilbert Tucker of Albany who had been traveling with his family in Europe.  

   Jackson said, “The interesting thing is he was very embarrassed by the fact that he survived the sinking when so many others had perished.  And I did interview a guy who knew him and he said you were never to mention Titanic in front of (Tucker).  He was very sensitive about it.”

   Jackson has been interested in the Titanic, the most magnificent ocean liner of her time, since he was a child.   He said the ship was destined for disaster before leaving the docks at Southampton because of mistakes made by her owner, designers and by the men who sailed her.

   My grandfather Harry Cudmore had come to Amsterdam from England to work as a silk weaver at Fownes, an Amsterdam glove mill, in 1911. His eldest son came with him. 

   Family legend has it that Harry’s wife Elizabeth and four of her children, including my father, were to come to America on the Titanic.  But grandmother dallied so long that they missed the doomed ship in April 1912.  They made an uneventful crossing later that year on a ship named the Majestic.

   A New York City area woman who survived the sinking of the Titanic, Marie Grice Young, died in 1959 at what was then Mount Loretto Nursing Home on Swart Hill Road in the Town of Amsterdam at age 83. 

   A native of Washington, D.C., Young was well connected, having given music lessons to President Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter Ethel.  She was rescued on one of the first lifeboats to leave the Titanic.

   After the disaster Young felt compelled to write to President William Howard Taft to deny a published report that she had conversed with Presidential aide Archibald Butt as the disaster unfolded.  Butt, who died with the ship, was military attaché to both Presidents Roosevelt and Taft.

   Butt supposedly asked Young to “remember (him) to all the folks back home."

   Young wrote, “The alleged interview is entirely an invention.”  

   She added, “When I last saw Major Butt, he was walking on deck, with Mr. Clarence Moore, on Sunday afternoon.”

   Young was living in New York City when she entered Mount Loretto.  One relative listed in her obituary was a great niece in Loudonville.

Sunday, April 3, 2022 -Archives-Episode 79-Bob Cudmore with stories from Focus on History in Daily Gazette: creation of Great Sacandaga Lake, dogs named for a lawmaker, clergymen on bicycles, Hugh Donlon’s 1940 history, baseball player George Burns’s Gloversville roots and more.

Historians Go Fund Me 2022 https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022

$500.00 the goal for April

$6000.00 the Goal for 2022

As of today, Sunday, April 3, 2022

$1825.00

Thank You to John J. Woodward

On-line or The U.S. Mail

A check made out to Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.  

Tuesday, April 5, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette- Ultrasound pioneer an Amsterdam man. 

Wednesday, April 6, 2022-From the Archives-April 16, 2021-Episode 366-Harold Schechter is author of “Maniac: the Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer.”

Thursday, April 7, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Bijou Carpet in Amsterdam. 

Friday "More on the Titanic"

April 8, 2022 Episode 417-Bryan Jackson is author of Why the Titanic Was Doomed.  Titanic, the most magnificent ocean liner of her time, was destined for disaster before she left the docks at Southampton according to Jackson--doomed by her owner, designers and the men who sailed her.

Amsterdam and Mohawk Valley Weather, Sunday, April 3, 2022 

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... Jane Forby Hoyt was on the vessel with her husband Fred.  Jane had lived on Chestnut Street in Amsterdam when she was growing up, the daughter of Frank and Emmeline Forby. 

The ship that sank 110 years ago

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History 

   The Amsterdam Recorder had a solid local angle when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic.

   Monday, April 15, 1912 the newspaper reported, “There was much local interest aroused today in the mishap to the Titanic through the fact that an Amsterdam girl was numbered among the first class passengers.”

   Jane Forby Hoyt was on the vessel with her husband Fred.  Jane had lived on Chestnut Street in Amsterdam when she was growing up, the daughter of Frank and Emmeline Forby.   

   A stenographer, Jane married Fred Hoyt, a partner in a New York lace importing firm who was a yachtsman.  The Hoyts were returning on the Titanic’s maiden voyage after touring Europe and Egypt.

   Jane was put on one of the last lifeboats.  Donning a life vest Fred went to a lower deck and jumped into the water.  He grabbed a piece of wreckage to stay afloat.

   The crew of the lifeboat Jane was in pulled Fred from the water and the two were reunited.  Several hours later, the Cunard liner Carpathia picked up their lifeboat.    

   Jane lived until age 55.  Fred died at age 67.  They had no children.

   Longtime reporter and public relations official Bryan Jackson has written a new book called “Why The Titanic Was Doomed.”

   According to Jackson, another Capital District survivor was Gilbert Tucker of Albany who had been traveling with his family in Europe.  

   Jackson said, “The interesting thing is he was very embarrassed by the fact that he survived the sinking when so many others had perished.  And I did interview a guy who knew him and he said you were never to mention Titanic in front of (Tucker).  He was very sensitive about it.”

   Jackson has been interested in the Titanic, the most magnificent ocean liner of her time, since he was a child.   He said the ship was destined for disaster before leaving the docks at Southampton because of mistakes made by her owner, designers and by the men who sailed her.

   My grandfather Harry Cudmore had come to Amsterdam from England to work as a silk weaver at Fownes, an Amsterdam glove mill, in 1911. His eldest son came with him. 

   Family legend has it that Harry’s wife Elizabeth and four of her children, including my father, were to come to America on the Titanic.  But grandmother dallied so long that they missed the doomed ship in April 1912.  They made an uneventful crossing later that year on a ship named the Majestic.

   A New York City area woman who survived the sinking of the Titanic, Marie Grice Young, died in 1959 at what was then Mount Loretto Nursing Home on Swart Hill Road in the Town of Amsterdam at age 83. 

   A native of Washington, D.C., Young was well connected, having given music lessons to President Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter Ethel.  She was rescued on one of the first lifeboats to leave the Titanic.

   After the disaster Young felt compelled to write to President William Howard Taft to deny a published report that she had conversed with Presidential aide Archibald Butt as the disaster unfolded.  Butt, who died with the ship, was military attaché to both Presidents Roosevelt and Taft.

   Butt supposedly asked Young to “remember (him) to all the folks back home."

   Young wrote, “The alleged interview is entirely an invention.”  

   She added, “When I last saw Major Butt, he was walking on deck, with Mr. Clarence Moore, on Sunday afternoon.”

   Young was living in New York City when she entered Mount Loretto.  One relative listed in her obituary was a great niece in Loudonville.

Sunday, April 3, 2022-From the Archives-Episode 79, September 27, 2015-Bob Cudmore with stories from Focus on History in Daily Gazette: creation of Great Sacandaga Lake, dogs named for a lawmaker, clergymen on bicycles, Hugh Donlon’s 1940 history, baseball player George Burns’s Gloversville roots and more.

The Historians April Schedule

Friday, April 8, 2022 Episode 417-Bryan Jackson is author of Why the Titanic Was Doomed.  Titanic, the most magnificent ocean liner of her time, was destined for disaster before she left the docks at Southampton according to Jackson--doomed by her owner, designers and the men who sailed her. 

Friday, April 15, 2022 Episode 418-Bruce Dearstyne is encouraging New Yorkers to celebrate April 20 as the birthday of the Empire State.  The first New York State constitution was adopted April 20, 1777 during a momentous year for the state during the Revolutionary War.  Dearstyne was formerly on the staff of the Office of State History and the State Archives.  He has written books and articles on New York history.

Friday, April 22, 2022-Episode 419-Edmund Richardson is author of The King’s Shadow: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Deadly Quest for the Lost City of Alexandria, the story of a deserter who discovered a civilization founded by Alexander the Great in Afghanistan in the fourth century B.C.

Friday, April 29, 2022-Episode 420-Paul Craddock at UCL Medical School in London England is author of Spare Parts: The Story of Medicine Through the History of Transplant Surgery.

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather and News Headlines

Saturday, April 2, 2022

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...busy schedule on The Historians in April

A long wind today, Thursday back and forth "14 Minutes"

Historians Go Fund Me Goal for April $500.00. On-line or the U.S. Mail https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or a check made out to Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

  “There was the Strand Theater, Rialto, Orpheum and Regent—a big ten cents for a double feature, cartoon, short subject. 

Remembering Fred Wojcicki

By Bob Cudmore

   Fred Wojcicki, a source of information for this column for ten years, passed away December 20th of 2017 in Hacienda Heights, California at the age of 91.  He lived his last 54 years in the Golden State but vividly remembered people and events of the first 37 years of his life in the Amsterdam area.    

   Fred was born in 1926, the son of John and Mary Wojcicki.  His family lived in a flat on Hibbard Street in the Polish neighborhood of Reid Hill.   

   The Wojcickis moved to Mathias Avenue when Fred was one year old.  Neighbors there included John Gomulka, who became mayor, and Andrew Celmer, who became police chief. 

   Wojcicki played baseball for St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church.  When the team won, Reverend Francis Drzewiecki, their coach, treated the boys to sundaes at Krupczak’s Pharmacy, operated by the parents of Mary Anne Krupsak, who became New York lieutenant governor in the 1970s.      

   Only one of Wojcicki’s childhood chums had a bicycle but he let the other kids “ride around the block for five cents a trip.”

   Wojcicki said, “In the winter months it was skating at Karp’s Park (off Church St.), Amsterdam High (on Brandt Place) or roller skating across from St. Mary’s Church (in a building on East Main St,) which later became Kemp Buick.

   “There was the Strand Theater, Rialto, Orpheum and Regent—a big ten cents for a double feature, cartoon, short subject.  After that, it was ice cream or hanging out at Schell’s Pharmacy, Community Pharmacy, Brownie’s Hot Dog Shop or at Miecz’s Pool Hall and Lou Allen’s Pool Hall.

   “Feeding Harry Demsky’s horse with carrots was a treat, too,”

   Ragman Demsky was the father of actor Kirk Douglas.  Like Wojcicki, Douglas moved to California.

   Private First Class Joseph Wojcicki, Fred’s older brother, went ashore in France during the Normandy invasion and died July 18 1944 after being wounded in St. Lo.  He was 31 and had been a weaver at Mohawk Carpet Mills.

   Fred’s brother also worked at the Italian Gardens in Broadalbin, created by summer resident Katherine Husted but owned in the 1930s by Amsterdam button maker Arthur Chalmers.  Fred sometimes visited his brother at work and saw Arthur Chalmers go by in his chauffeured limousine.

   Fred served with the U.S. Navy Seabees in Guam and other locations in the Mariana Islands in World War II.  “We grew up fast in a few years during that war,” he said. 

   He came back to Amsterdam after the war.  His father died in 1949.  Fred ran the Fort Johnson skating rink in the winters of 1949 and 1950. 

   When he worked for an insurance firm in Amsterdam, Fred got to know Sister William Aloysius Fitzpatrick, the long-time maternity department administrator at St. Mary's Hospital who died last year.  “She was always fair and honest, great to patients and parents alike,” Wojcicki said.

   Fred moved to California in 1963.  He married Phyllis Wood Gibbons in 1967.  Fred’s mother died that year.  Fred worked at Standard Brands Paint Company in California until he retired in 1989.  Phyllis died in 2005.

   He typed letters frequently to my friend Audrey Sears and me. His last letter in October acknowledged health problems and the Gazette column about him published last September, “I have received ten letters from friends, including clippings from the column.”

   His obituary ran in the Los Angeles Times, a newspaper he favored as he often sent us clippings of stories from that West Coast media giant,

   Fred is survived by a daughter, son, stepdaughter, stepson and extended family.  He was predeceased by a son, brother and two sisters.

Tomorrow, Friday, April 1, 2022

Bob Cudmore-Neil Lanctot interview "29 Minutes"

There was a great deal of shock in The United States...

Episode 416-Neil Lanctot is author of The Approaching Storm: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jane Addams and Their Clash Over America’s Future.  The book recounts the debate over whether America should enter World War I. 

Mohawk Valley Weather and News Headlines Thursday, March 31, 2022

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Troopers: Second Fulton County kidnapping suspect, Wilson, charged in Montgomery County motel allegations

AMSTERDAM – The second of two people charged in connection with a New Year’s week...

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Former Gloversville senior center director pleads guilty to stealing $30K

by Andrew Waite

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...this is a baseball story

Thanks to generous donations from Amsterdam Reads and from Mary Beth and Barry Becker The Historians Podcast 2022 fund drive now totals $1775.  That’s almost 30% of our $6,000 goal for the year.  Please donate online here- https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-historians-podcast-2022  Or send a check made out to Bob Cudmore 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, NY 12302.

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Late film historian Rob Edelman discusses his book “From Spring Training to Screen Test: Baseball Players Turned Actors.”

Rob’s wife and retired film professor Audrey Kupferberg has stories of Jewish merchants in the thriving downtown of the 1950s in her native Amsterdam, New York. Rob Edelman died in 2019.

Tomorrow, Fred Wojcicki’s memories of Amsterdam. 

Thursday, March 31, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette

To start April on The Historians

Friday, April 1, 2022-Episode 416-Neil Lanctot is author of The Approaching Storm: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jane Addams and Their Clash Over America’s Future.  The book recounts the debate over whether America should enter World War I. 

April Week Two

Friday, April 8, 2022 Episode 417-Bryan Jackson is author of Why the Titanic Was Doomed.  Titanic, the most magnificent ocean liner of her time, was destined for disaster before she left the docks at Southampton according to Jackson--doomed by her owner, designers and the men who sailed her.

Mohawk Valley Weather and News Headlines

Wednesday, March 30, 2022

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Albany-area unemployment 3.6% in February

by John Cropley

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Historinas Podcast on the Internet and Radio

Help keep The Historians on the RISE schedule

Tomorrow at 10 on WMHT89.1 Public Radio Albany RISE, the service for the blind in The Hudson Valley Episode 415-Violinist Ann-Marie Barker Schwarz explores the history of high quality music in the early days of radio. Edward Rice played the violin during WGY Schenectady’s first broadcast on February 20, 1922. Barker Schwarz is the founder of Musicians of Ma’alwyck and took part in WGY’s 100th anniversary broadcast.

$100.00 needed by the end of this week.

The Historians Podcast 2022 fund drive now totals $1675.  That’s 27% of our $6,000 goal for the year.  Please donate online 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. 

...The girls would wait patiently for Demsky to resume his rag collection run with his horse and wagon and then sell him his own bag of rags, usually for twenty cents.

Fooling the ragman

By Bob Cudmore

In his day, ragman Harry Demsky was better known in Amsterdam than his son Isadore.

Isadore, whose nickname was Izzy, changed his name to Kirk Douglas and became a famous Hollywood actor and producer.

Harry Demsky was a legendary strong man, drinker and brawler.  Kirk Douglas wrote in his 1988 autobiography, “The Ragman’s Son,” that his father was “the toughest, strongest Jew” in Amsterdam.

According to Douglas’s book, his father was born Herschel Danielovitch in Russia and came to America in 1908.  His wife Bryna or Bertha Sanglel followed two years later.  Their six daughters and one son all were born in America.

Douglas wrote that his father left their Eagle Street home every day with his horse-drawn wagon, traveling the streets of Amsterdam yelling “Rags, any rags!”

The rags and scrap metal he collected were sold to what we would call a recycling company.

Douglas wrote, “I’d help my father stuff the rags into burlap bags.  I’d jab four holes in the top of the bag, lace a woman’s discarded stocking through the holes, knot it, and add it to the pile of bags.”

Schenectady resident Albert Roz, a native of Amsterdam, said his sister Clara used to scam Demsky when the ragman visited their grandfather, Albert Dzikowicz, on Crane Street at the top of Vrooman Avenue hill in the 1920s.

Demsky would leave his horse and wagon on the street and sit with Dzikowicz in his cool grape arbor behind the house, playing cards and checkers and enjoying home brewed alcohol.

Douglas wrote that his father always managed to find alcohol, even during Prohibition.  Once he got in trouble for drinking the ceremonial wine stored at his synagogue.

Roz said that while his grandfather and Demsky were out of sight in the grape arbor, his sister and her friends would “carefully remove a bag of rags from old man Demsky’s buggy and drag it about 100 feet to the corner of Crane and Church Street.”

The girls would wait patiently for Demsky to resume his rag collection run with his horse and wagon and then sell him his own bag of rags, usually for twenty cents.

Roz wrote, “Wow, back in 1925, twenty cents would buy a lot of Mary Jane and other penny candy at Mruczek’s candy store on Crane Street.

“Occasionally, young Isadore (Kirk Douglas) would join his father on these trips and Clara, her friends and Isadore would play and the girls could not sell rags to the ragman that day.”

Harry and Bryna Demsky lived to see their son become world-famous.  Harry and Bryna lived separately in their later years.  At Douglas’s expense, Harry lived at Boggie’s Fourth Ward Hotel on Amsterdam’s East Main Street.  Bryna resided with one of her daughters in the Capital District and then moved to the Jewish Home for the Aged in Troy.

Harry stayed at the home of one of his daughters in Troy late in his life and two days before he died in 1954, he was moved to the Jewish Home for the Aged.  Douglas visited him that weekend but flew back to California early on a Sunday, believing his father was rallying.  Harry Demsky, 70, died later that day and is buried at the Cranesville cemetery of Congregation Sons of Israel of Amsterdam.

Douglas named his Hollywood production company after his mother, Bryna.  The actor was at her bedside in 1958 when she passed away at age 74 at an Albany hospital.

Clara Roz Spring, the girl who fooled the ragman, died in 2007 at age 93. 

Kirk Douglas died at age 103 on February 5, 2020.

Historians schedule for Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Episode 205-Late film historian Rob Edelman discusses his book “From Spring Training to Screen Test: Baseball Players Turned Actors.” Rob’s wife and retired film professor Audrey Kupferberg has stories of Jewish merchants in the thriving downtown of the 1950s in her native Amsterdam, New York. Rob Edelman died in 2019.

Only one of Wojcicki’s childhood chums had a bicycle but he let the other kids “ride around the block for five cents a trip.” Thursday, March 31, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—Fred Wojcicki’s memories of Amsterdam.

Friday, April 1, 2022 

Episode 416

The fascinating story of how the three most influential American progressives of the early twentieth century split over America’s response to World War I.

Neil Lanctot is author of The Approaching Storm: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jane Addams and Their Clash Over America’s Future.  The book recounts the debate over whether America should enter World War I. 

Socialist Schenectady: Birthplace of the Hedge Fund?

Virtual Program this Friday, April 1, 2022 at  Noon

Schenectady County Historical Society

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Alfred Winslow Jones (1900-1989) created the first hedge fund in 1949, but his motives may seem peculiar in retrospect. This “lifelong Democrat or (Norman Thomas) socialist” thought hedge funds — far from becoming bywords for inequality — might stabilize markets, produce conditions of common prosperity, and encourage socialist-style policies of wealth redistribution.

Mohawk Valley Weather and News Headlines

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

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Leader Herald

Fulton County schools qualify for World Finals in creative problem-solving competition

by Andrew Waite

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