Bob Cudmore’s guest on Magic 590's Talk of the Town today, Sunday, January 5, 2020 is Troy Mayor Patrick Madden. Mayor Madden discusses concerns over a downtown parking garage, the city budget and the start of his second term in office. Hear Talk of the Town every Sunday on Magic 590 and 100.5, plus in the Lake George/Glens Falls area on 1410 and 96.9.
Sunday Podcast "21 Minutes"
This Friday, January 10, 2020
Episode 300
Montgomery County historian Kelly Yacobucci Farquhar discusses a historical audio tour along the Erie Canal Bikeway in that county. Bob Cudmore reads three vignettes—Fort Klock, the Noses and the Putman Canal Store.
Now playing on The Historians Podcast-Episode 299-Excerpts from 12 of 2019’s podcasts. The guests are Norm Bollen, Nick Bunker, Patricia Walsh Chadwick, Richard Ratajak, Beth Hill, Maeve McEneny, Rod Pyle, Curt Breneman, Dan Weaver, Samantha Hall-Saladino, Charles Postel, Bill Buell and Leigh Eckmair.
Thank you to all who contributed to the 2019 Historians Podcast fund drive. We exceeded our $4000 goal and raised $4337. The 2020 fund drive is now underway to support our historical audio project. Our goal this year is $4500. You may donate online at www.gofundme.com/historians-podcast-2020-fund-drive Or donate by mail, make out a check to Bob Cudmore and send to 125 Horstman Drive, Scotia, N.Y. 12302. Your ongoing support is much appreciated.
A hundred years ago in Amsterdam
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette
In January 1920, one hundred years ago, William McCleary died and George McNeir became president of McCleary, Wallin and Crouse, a carpet mill then at Forest Avenue and Lyon Street in Amsterdam. They were doing well, distributing $50,000 in employee bonuses.
In August the firm merged with the Shuttleworth Brothers carpet factory in the East End. The new company was called Mohawk. McNeir became chairman of the board but the company was headed by Herbert Shuttleworth.
An estimated 5,000 people attended a parade of Polish residents in August 1920, followed by a mass meeting at the State Armory where resolutions pledging support to the new Polish republic were adopted.
A new Amsterdam mayor, Theron Akin, took office in 1920. His two terms would be controversial. He suspended then removed a longtime opponent, police chief Fred Packwood. Andrew Burns became chief. Near the end of the year a state court upheld Packwood’s ouster.
The police department moved to a former fire station on Chuctanunda Street in downtown that year. City aldermen shared space there with the police court. There was a Christmas tree and a dinner for the officers that Christmas.
The coldest day of 1920 in the Amsterdam area was January 16, with the mercury from 16 to 36 degrees below zero. In late February Supervisor Harvey B. Goodemote of Broadalbin died while wading through snow to help a neighbor.
The worst blizzard of the winter disrupted train and trolley service and crippled telephone lines in early March. Another snow storm hit a week later and tied up traffic for a few days.
The federal census board announced that Amsterdam’s population was 33,524 in the 1920 count, an increase of 2,257 over the census of 1910. Montgomery County had 57,928 people, an increase of 361 compared to 1910.
Amsterdam native Hugh Donlon, a church organist, married Teresa Baier in Hudson in April 1920. They returned to Amsterdam the next year when Hugh became organist at Amsterdam’s St. Mary’s Church.
Teresa Donlon died in June 1921 while giving birth to their son Charles. Donlon later became a reporter, then columnist for the Amsterdam Recorder. His 1980 book on Amsterdam history is still a frequently consulted reference.
Monday, January 6, 2020-The Story Behind the Story Podcast focuses on life in Amsterdam, N.Y., 100 years ago in 1920.
It was a Presidential election year in 1920. Democratic vice presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed Amsterdamians from the platform of a morning train in September.
But it was a year for Republicans. Presidential candidate Warren G. Harding carried Montgomery County by 6,919 votes.
The Great War was still recent history in 1920. The body of Henry Oeser, Jr., arrived from France and was buried at Fort Plain. The bodies of infantrymen Frank Sandusky of Amsterdam and Ralph Morrell of Fort Hunter also made it home from the war in 1920.
In August Civil War veterans of the 115th and 153rd New York volunteer regiments held their annual reunion in Gloversville.
In April 1920 Nellie Bostwick Dery was acquitted of the murder of her companion William H. Marshall, Jr., at Fort Johnson the previous year. It was her second trial.
Also that month Governor Al Smith commuted the sentence of John Bardascini, after five years in Clinton prison. Bardascini had been convicted of murder for the killing of Vito Fedullo in Amsterdam in 1915.
In May Joseph Schedlbauer was appointed harbormaster at the barge canal terminal succeeding Peter J. Manifold. That month there was a demonstration by a ship-by-truck organization. A “train of trucks” was touring eastern New York and advocating for better roads.
Information for this column came mainly from a database of Amsterdam Recorder newspaper headlines archived on Frank Yunker’s Web site, www.mohawkvalleyweb.com
Mohawk Valley Weather, Sunday, January 5, 2020
Partly sunny, with a high near 31. Northwest wind 13 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.
Tonight Snow likely, mainly after 4am. Increasing clouds, with a low around 22. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light and variable after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Monday Snow showers likely before 1pm, then a slight chance of rain and snow showers between 1pm and 4pm, then a slight chance of snow showers after 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 36. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west 11 to 16 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.
A cooler and breezy Sunday is in store for eastern New
York and western New England as high pressure takes control of the
region. Then, our next disturbance impacts the region late tonight
into Monday morning with snow showers. While accumulations will
generally be light, it could lead to a slippery morning commute.
The Historians with Bob Cudmore
Tuesday, January 7, 2020-From the Archives of Focus on History in the Daily Gazette: What they dug up in Amsterdam 2011
Wednesday, January 8, 2020-From the Historians Podcast Archives- Episode 136, November 4, 2016-Annette Libeskind Berkovits is author of “In the Unlikeliest of Places.” Her father, Nachman Libeskind, survived the Nazis in Poland and the gulags of the Soviet Union, ending up as an artist in the United States.
Thursday, January 9, 2020-From the Archives of Focus on History in the Daily Gazette-Riding the F.J. & G.
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