This Sunday, June 2, 2019 Congressman Paul Tonko is the guest on Talk of The Town with host Bob Cudmore. Today on The Historians you can hear part of the interview, the full podcast will be posted this weekend.
Broadcast each Sunday on Magic590 and 100.5 WROW and in the North Country on 1410AM and 96.9FM
Tomorrow, Friday, May 31, 2019-Episode 268-Beth Hill is president and CEO of Fort Ticonderoga. Hill discusses the historic site’s emphasis on the year 1758 in this year’s exhibitions, a year in which a large British army was unable to capture the fort, defended by a much smaller French garrison.
Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, May 30, 2019-Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 74. West wind 5 to 9 mph. Tonight A chance of showers, mainly before 4am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 54. Friday Sunny, with a high near 72.
Thursday, May 30, 2019-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam’s linseed oil plant 02-14-2009
Linseed oil, used as a drying ingredient in paint and varnish, once was produced in great quantities at Kelloggs & Miller, a factory built along Church Street in Amsterdam.
Supplina Kellogg founded the business in West Galway in 1824, apparently the oldest linseed oil plant in the country. In 1850, Supplina’s sons, John and Lauren, moved the operation down the Chuctanunda Creek to Amsterdam, taking over a former distillery that had been owned by Amsterdam merchant and Congressman Benedict Arnold.
James Miller, Lauren’s brother-in-law, became part of the company and the name was changed to Kellogg & Miller. More Kelloggs came into the firm and the company became Kelloggs & Miller in 1872.
At first, linseed or flaxseed was grown in Upstate New York and the Midwest. Much of the raw material, though, came to Amsterdam by barge from overseas. The linseed was cleaned, crushed, heated and pressed at the Amsterdam mill. The linseed oil drained into troughs and was aged in large metal vats inside six brick roundhouses. The residue from the oil-making process became seed cakes that were shipped to Europe for animal feed.
Much of the oil was shipped in five-gallon containers, which have become collector’s items. Customers who purchased in large quantities received oil in the company’s own railroad tank cars. The local rail short line—Amsterdam, Chuctanunda & Northern—could take the tank cars from the plant to the railroad mainline.
The firm built an elegant $10,000 administration building in 1874. Carpet magnate Stephen Sanford, whose own mills were nearby, told the Amsterdam Democrat newspaper that the Kelloggs & Miller administration building was “not excelled in the state.” In 1887, the firm was at its peak and employed 500 people.
The company was sold to Bisby Linseed Oil Company in the 1930s and Bisby closed the Amsterdam mill in 1948. Today, the remaining structures of the old mill are owned by Reid Hill businessman Joe Slezak and his family.
SMOKE
Two years after the troops came home from World War II, Mohawk Carpet Mills in Amsterdam published a small picture book called “Smoke: The Story of a Fight.”
The title linked the smoke of hearth fires and factories on the home front, “the servant of man,” with the smoke of warfare, “the master.”
The cover of the book was made of canvas, produced at Mohawk during the war. Mohawk employed a record 5,500 workers then. Mohawk and Bigelow-Sanford, the city’s other carpet mill, converted production to canvas and blankets. Millions of yards of cotton duck were made in Amsterdam and used for tents, tarpaulins and gun and turret covers. The local mills also produced more than five million blankets for the war effort.
According to “Smoke,” “Men lived in blankets. Men waited in blankets. Men fought in blankets. Men died in blankets.”
The author of “Smoke” was carpet mill executive Reginald Harris, probably best remembered as a choral director and musician. Harris directed the Mohawk Mills Chorus, predecessor of today’s Mohawk Valley Chorus, from 1940 until his death in 1960.
GUBERNATORIAL VISITS
Gubernatorial visits to Montgomery and Fulton counties are rare. And no one can remember when a New York governor did what David Paterson did last month, attend a public forum in the region in which he answered questions from constituents. Paterson’s forum was at Fulton-Montgomery Community College.
"In Print this Weekend on The Historians and in The Daily Gazette"
Saturday, June 1, 2019-Focus on History in the Daily Gazette-1895 Amsterdam murder made headlines
Jason Subik Mid-Morning Program WCSS Radio Amsterdam 106.9FM and 1490AM Amsterdam News and Talk https://www.facebook.com/jason.subik Wednesday, May 29, 2019 The Mid-Morning Show with Jason Subik on WCSS 1490 AM 106.9 FM. Phone #518-843-2500. Special thanks to my colleague Daily Gazette Business Reporter John Cropley who called in to tell us about the situation with St. Claire’s pensioners. Monday-Thursday at 9 am Video Podcast Posted on The Historians The Albany County Historical Association has announced a week of Archaeology Camp at the Ten Broeck Mansion. Led by a professional archaeologist from Hartgen Archaeological Associates, campers will conduct a dig on the grounds of the Ten Broeck Mansion, built in 1798 for Brigadier General Abraham Ten Broeck and his family. NYHB https://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2019/05/archaeology-camp-at-the-ten-broeck-mansion/
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