Tomorrow, Friday, February 15-Historians Podcast, Episode 253-Bob Cudmore has stories from local history he had planned to share with the Broadalbin-Kennyetto Historical Society. The Broadalbin talk was cancelled because of a power outage.
Bob Cudmore will be master of ceremonies at the first annual George Washington's Birthday Symposium this Saturday, February 16, 2019 from 8:15 AM to 3:30 PM at Fulton-Montgomery Community College (location at college to be determined). The event is presented by the Fort Plain Museum. $35 for advance registration, $40 at the door and $20 student rate. Lunch and coffee/water breaks included. For more information visit www.fortplainmuseum.com
Presenting on the Father of our Country are the following Historians/Authors:
George Washington and the Mohawk Frontier - Norman J. Bollen
Setting the Example: George Washington's Military Leadership - Edward G. Lengel
George & Martha - Bruce Chadwick
George Washington and the Newburgh Conspiracy - William M. Fowler, Jr.
George Washington's Ten Crucial Days: Trenton and Princeton - William "Larry" Kidder
Norm Bollen At Johnstown Mall Book Fair-George Washington and the Mohawk Frontier
Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, February 14, 2019-Isolated snow showers before 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 35. Breezy, with a west wind 15 to 20 mph decreasing to 7 to 12 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph.
A Lavish Hollywood Musical series is pre-empted for a special Valentine's Day treat this week: the 2000 film CHOCOLAT. A fable about a chocolate shop in a remote French village with mouth watering confections. So at the Amsterdam Free Library, 28 Church Street, Valentine's Day, February 14, 2019 at 2pm, CHOCOLAT.
Thursday, February 14, 2019-Celebrating Black History Month-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-African Americans in the Mohawk Valley
British Indian agent Sir William Johnson owned at least forty slaves at his Johnstown plantation in the 1700s. Dutch plantation owners in our area also enslaved African Americans to work their lands.
There is a historical marker at Chester “Bromley” Hoke’s Mohawk Street home in Canajoharie. Born in 1847, twenty years after New York abolished slavery, Hoke volunteered for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, one of the first black units in the Civil War. After the war, he was a porter at the Nellis Hotel. He died in 1913.
Anthony “Dixie” Veal, an African-American who joined up with New York State troops marching through Georgia in the Civil War, also worked as a hotel porter.
Veal ended up at Amsterdam’s Hotel Warner. Veal once convinced the owners of the city’s Opera House not to go on stage with an insulting black face impersonation of him. He suffered from mental illness toward the end of his life.
When Veal died in 1904, the Recorder newspaper wrote, “Few people in Amsterdam were better known than he.”
Bruce Anderson, an African American buried in Amsterdam, fought alongside a Canajoharie white man, Zachariah Neahr, in a daring mission during the second battle of Fort Fisher, North Carolina in the Civil War.
The survivors were recommended for Congressional Medals of Honor but the paperwork was lost.
Anderson was born in 1845 in Mexico City, although some say he was born in upstate New York. He was among a number of African Americans who enlisted in white Union regiments.
Neahr received his Medal of Honor in the 1890s. Anderson finally got his medal in 1914. Anderson died in 1922 at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany and was buried at Green Hill Cemetery in Amsterdam.
Montgomery County historian Kelly Farquhar said she is ninety percent sure that Bruce Anderson’s grandson is Ambrose “Cowboy” Anderson, Jr. of Gloversville, a 2012 recipient of the Congressional Gold medal, the nation’s highest civilian award.
“Cowboy” Anderson earned his nickname on the streets of Gloversville as a child. He was one of the first Montfort Point Marines, an African American unit in World War II. He fought in the battle on Iwo Jima.
An African American Amsterdam barber, Robert A. Jackson, may have been active in the Underground Railroad. Farquhar said Jackson’s barber shop on an upper floor at 69 East Main Street was near Chandler Bartlett’s shoe store that reputedly sheltered freedom seekers.
After the Civil War, according to research compiled by historian Christopher Philippo, Jackson delivered a rousing speech in support of Republican Presidential candidate James Blaine in Canajoharie in 1884. Blaine narrowly lost the Presidential election to New York Governor Grover Cleveland. Jackson died in February 1893 and was buried at Green Hill Cemetery.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson’s grandfather was a high school basketball star in Amsterdam. Harrison Wilson, Jr. went on to serve as president of Norfolk State University, a historically black institution in Virginia, from 1975 to 1997.
Harrison, Jr. was the son of Harrison Wilson, Sr., who was born in Falmouth, Kentucky, relocating to Amsterdam in 1910.
Harrison Sr. and his wife Marguerite raised eight children. He worked as a maintenance man for Amsterdam landlord Thomas McGibbon.
Harrison, Sr. helped save two female pin setters at a bowling alley in a downtown fire in a building his employer owned, the McGibbon Block, in 1943.
McGibbon died later that year. The Wilsons then made their living in part by operating a private parking lot in downtown Amsterdam previously owned by McGibbon.
All the Wilson children pursued substantial careers in education, law, health care, industry and sports.
The Jason Subik Mid-Morning Show WCSS Radio 106.9FM and 1490AM
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Live Facebook Feed at 9 this morning
Watch the live Facebook Feed from 9-10 AM Monday-Thursday https://www.facebook.com/jason.subik
Later Posted as a Video Podcast on The Historians
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