...Both Mohawk and Bigelow-Sanford carpet mills in Amsterdam switched to making blankets and canvas during World War II, while their machine shops produced a variety of war-related products.

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Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Mills at war

By Bob Cudmore

There is a determined but jaunty tone to a 1943 newsletter called The Mohawker, published by Mohawk Carpet mills for its employees and over 900 men and women from the mill who were scattered all over the world then in the armed forces.

“Silent Mike Domkowski has his over-age discharge,” began one of the items describing workers from Mohawk’s Wilton Department.  “His Sergeant told him he’d do more good for the Army in civilian life than being in it.  Mike said: ‘I ain’t mad.’”

Wilton was a type of carpet woven at Mohawk using a system of paper punch cards invented by an 18th century Frenchman, Joseph Jacquard.  Silent Mike was a Wilton weaver and legendary in the East End for being a man of few words.

A frequent hangout for Mike and my aunts—Vera Cudmore and Gladys Morrell—was the Ivy Leaf, a basement tavern at the corner of Forbes and Schuyler Streets operated by a woman named Smith.  Patrons nicknamed the Ivy Leaf the Kneepad Inn.  As it was located on one of Amsterdam’s steepest hills, the legend was that winter tipplers sometimes resorted to crawling out on their knees so they wouldn’t tumble down the hill when they hit the icy sidewalk. 

“Jimmy Hayden from the Wilton office is leaving for the Navy,” reported the 1943 Mohawker.  “We are all wishing Jimmy well, as he would go out of his way to keep our looms running.”

“Helen Burke, one of our sparehands, joined the WACCS.  You boys never met her but she tied a mean knot before she left.”  Sparehands and creelers tied hundreds of strong yet small “weaver’s knots” to keep the looms running.

“I’m glad to hear that the Mill is well on its way producing blankets and tarpaulins,” wrote U.S. Navy recruit Bruno Petruccione.

Both Mohawk and Bigelow-Sanford carpet mills in Amsterdam switched to making blankets and canvas during World War II, while their machine shops produced a variety of war-related products.

The lead story in the May 1943 newsletter reported that the War Department had presented the Army-Navy Production Award—the “E” pennant for excellence--to Mohawk Carpet Mills.  Mohawk was the first carpet mill to deliver canvas to the war effort.  Canvas was used for tents and to cover guns and other equipment.

“Canvas is sure a war commodity,” wrote Louis McLaughlin from the USS Jamestown.  “You would be surprised to see how much is used, even on the smaller ships.  And of course, blankets are a necessity everywhere.”

Charles and Margaret Personeus of Hagaman provided the copy of The Mohawker.  Charles Stephen Personeus was a combat infantryman in Burma in World War II, where mules were used to carry supplies.  After the war, like his father Charles Hutchinson Personeus, he worked at Mohawk.  When the mill closed he worked at General Electric. 

LINCOLN EXHIBIT

An exhibit on the life of Abraham Lincoln is on display at the Riverfront Center in Amsterdam, a cooperative effort between the Walter Elwood Museum and WCSS AM 1490 radio.  The exhibit can be seen whenever Riverfront Center is open through February 5.   

Historian Hugh Donlon wrote in “Annals of a Mill Town” that support for the Civil War effort was not unanimous in the Mohawk Valley.  Lincoln carried the town of Amsterdam and Montgomery County in 1860.  Lincoln trailed General George McClellan by 391 votes in the county in the 1864 election, although Lincoln did carry the town of Amsterdam by 131 votes that year.

According to a Lincoln history web site, the Great Emancipator’s funeral train passed through the Mohawk Valley and stopped in Amsterdam at 5:25 p.m. on April 26, 1865.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, April 13, 2022-From the Archives-Episode 153, March 3, 2017-Michael Barrett has an account of the eastern end of the Erie Canal in the 1880s which had numerous locks and a reputation for payoffs and rowdiness.  Barrett is executive director of the Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway in Troy.

"Sam Vomero of Amsterdam has found a map of Amsterdam’s Fourth Ward from 1905 that shows a large parcel of undeveloped East End land adjacent to the railroad called the Ross Estate".

Thursday, April 14, 2022- From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-What did they call the flat land in Amsterdam’s East End?

...celebrate April 20 as the birthday of the Empire State.

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.

The Hudson River Valley Institute will host “The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution,” a virtual presentation by Dr. Kevin Weddle tomorrow, Wednesday, April 13, 2022

https://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/-/cunneen-hackett-2022

Register on-line

7 to 8:15 pm.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, April 12, 2022

https://dailygazette.com/

https://www.recordernews.com/

Leader Herald

Gloversville School Board adopts 2022-23 budget proposal

by Andrew Pugliese

https://www.leaderherald.com/

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