Bob Cudmore will meet and greet visitors this Saturday, September 21, 2019 at the Summer’s End Festival at the Ames Museum, on Latimer Road in the village of Ames, six miles south of Canajoharie. https://amesmuseum.weebly.com/new-at-the-ames-museum.html
Sunday Podcast "Twenty Three Minutes" with Sara Foss of The Daily Gazette and this weeks podcast information
Sunday, September 15, 2019-Sara Foss, news columnist for the Daily Gazette, is Bob Cudmore’s guest on Magic 590’s Talk of the Town. Foss comments on the St. Clare’s Hospital pensioners plight and topics, including a fee for new state license plates. Magic590 WROW Albany also on 100.5FM Glens Falls 96.9FM and 1410AM
Mohawk Valley Weather, Sunday, September 15, 2019 Morning low clouds and fog will break for plenty of sunshine today
with a seasonably mild afternoon. A fast moving storm system will
return the threat for some light rain showers to the region for
tonight into tomorrow. Behind this system, a prolonged stretch of
dry weather is anticipated through the remainder of the week, with
temperatures trending above normal by late in the week.
The Historians schedule at the bottom of the page
Silk mills and a knitting mill explosion
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History
Former employees of Starin Silk Mills in Fultonville started the earliest silk-making factory in Amsterdam on Elk Street in 1891, according to historian Hugh Donlon.
Natural silk comes from a fiber produced by caterpillars spinning cocoons. The threads are boiled and woven into textiles.
The Elk Street mill was taken over by Julius Kayser Company in 1906 and employed a thousand people at its peak. A year-long strike in 1920 was a factor in Kayser’s decision to leave Amsterdam in 1924
Donlon said another company, Fownes Brothers, also wove silk at its plant on Amsterdam’s Grove Street.
John and Thomas Fownes founded their glove-making company in Worcester, England, in 1777. Fownes established glove mills in Amsterdam and Gloversville in 1903.
My grandfather, Harry Cudmore, came from Torrington, England to Amsterdam in 1911 to weave silk at Fownes’ mill on Grove Street. The Cudmores settled in a two family home on Eagle Street in the East End, three houses away from Harry and Bryna Demsky, whose son became the actor Kirk Douglas.
My grandfather’s sister Beatrice, who had come from England years before, and her husband, painter Bob Brown, owned the house where the Cudmores lived and resided on the other side.
Donlon said that fabrics other than silk became more popular for gloves by the time Fownes was acquired by the Sherr Company in 1935.
Starting in the 1940s, two of my father’s sisters, Gladys Cudmore Morrell and Vera Cudmore, worked in the shipping room at Fownes. We could always count on gloves for Christmas.
My grandfather, whose wife had died in 1934, lived with my aunts in a second floor flat on Forbes near the intersection with Dean Street.
As my grandfather had done, my aunts walked to work. Sometimes they stopped for refreshment at the Ivy Leaf, a basement tavern which also served hearty meals at Forbes and Schuyler Streets.
In his working days grandfather Harry frequently stopped at Shaughnessy’s Tavern at East Main and Eagle Streets on his way home from Fownes’ Grove Street mill.
In the late 1950’s Fownes shifted manufacturing from the United States to the Far East. After Mohawk Carpet ceased manufacturing in Amsterdam, Fownes acquired Mohawk’s multi-story mill on Elk Street for a glove distribution center, replacing a Mohawk sign with a Fownes sign (visible from the Thruway) on top of the building.
In 2010 Fownes moved its distribution center from Amsterdam to Mayfield. In 2016 three men were charged with creating a large marijuana growing operation on the top floor of the Elk Street building.
Tomorrow, Monday, September 16, 2019-The Story Behind the Story Podcast focuses on silk mills and a knitting mill explosion
EXPLOSION AT A KNITTING MILL
A factory explosion in 1883 claimed one life and made news across New York State. Watchman Michael Keegan, 41, smelled gas while making his rounds at the Blaisdell knitting mill in Rock City.
Rock City, named for rock quarries there, was a village settled by the early 1800s. The name was changed to Rockton a few years after the explosion and the village was annexed by the city of Amsterdam in 1901.
The Fort Plain Register reported, “The mill was lighted with a gasoline machine and feeling convinced that the machine was leaking, (Keegan) took his lantern and started for the (basement) room in which it was kept. He had just entered the room when the escaping gas ignited from the lantern and exploded with a loud report.”
Knocked down by the blast, Keegan managed to crawl upstairs, open a window and tumble out into the snow. It was about 4:00 a.m. on February 12.
Keegan died two days after the explosion. He was 41, and left a wife and three children.
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The Historians Schedule
Tuesday, September 17, 2019-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam’s Sassafras Bird Sanctuary-01-12-2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2019-From The Historians Podcast Archives- Friday, August 31, 2018-Episode 230-Presidential historian David Pietrusza discusses his latest book, “TR’s Last War: Theodore Roosevelt, the Great War and a Journey of Triumph and Tragedy.”
Thursday, September 12, 2019-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam war hero John Blanchfield-11-24-2012
Episode 284
Friday, September 20, 2019-Episode 284–Duncan White talks about Howard Fast (who wrote the novel that was the basis for Kirk Douglas’s movie Spartacus), Boris Pasternak and other authors described in White’s book: “The Cold Warriors: Writers Who Waged The Literary Cold War.”
Harold Toles took a lot of pictures. If anything big happened in Schoharie County from 1948 to 1984, Toles was probably there with his camera.
The Old Stone Fort Museum Research Library has more than 150,000 of his negatives in its collection, as well as 13 notebooks recording a description of each shot. More on The New York History Blog https://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2019/09/featured-collection-harold-toles-schoharie-county-photos/
Empire State Aerosciences Museum Joins Smithsonian Magazine’s
15th Annual Museum Day Live!
Free Admission on September 21, 2019, with a Downloadable Museum Day Live! Ticket
At 250 Rudy Chase Dr. Glenville, NY— The Empire State Aerosciences Museum will open its doors free of charge Saturday, September 21, 2019 from 10 am to 4 pm as part of Smithsonian magazine’s fifteenth annual “Museum Day Live,” an initiative in which participating museums across the United States emulate the spirit of the Smithsonian Institution’s Washington DC-based facilities and open their doors for free to those who download a “Museum Day Live” ticket. Visitors who present the “Museum Day Live” ticket will gain free entrance for two people. One ticket per email address is permitted. For a ticket go to:Smithsonianmag.com
Soar through History- The Empire State Aerosciences Museum is a one-of-a-kind cultural resource located at the Schenectady County Airport in the Town of Glenville, at the site of the former General Electric Flight Test Center. Dedicated to interpreting aviation, particularly as related to New York State, the museum offers visitors a variety of enjoyable and educational experiences, including interpretive exhibits, a spectacular collection of restored aircraft, the State’s largest aviation library and school programs. Exhibits include the enemy aircraft in the film “Top Gun,” a 13’ scale model of the Japanese aircraft carrier “Akagi” built for the film “Tora, Tora, Tora” and a mockup of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed 10, used in the TV movie “The Final Flight.” Contact info: (518) 377-2191
Not Far Away on The Historians
Friday, September 27, 2019-Episode 285-Eric Schnitzer, national historical park ranger, is author of “Don Troiani's Campaign to Saratoga-1777: The Turning Point of the Revolutionary War in Paintings, Artifacts, and Historical Narrative.” Don Troiani is known for his historical and military paintings.
Saratoga National Historical Park Ranger and Historian Eric Schnitzer is set to give a talk on his newly released book, Don Troiani’s Campaign to Saratoga – 1777, on Thursday, October 3, 2019 at the Fort Plain Museum.
The Battles of Saratoga are cited as the turning point in the Revolutionary War. Historical painter Don Troiani and historian Eric Schnitzer combine their talents in this new book on Saratoga, the Revolutionary War campaign.
Jason Subik Show
Mid-Mornings WCSS Radio Amsterdam 106.9FM 1490AM
Facebook Feed https://www.facebook.com/jason.subik
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