Writing Series - Little Falls Historical Society Museum

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2023 Writing Series Dedicated to Edward Cooney By Michael Cooney

March 10, 2023

Edward Cooney was City Historian for over forty years, president of the Herkimer County Historical Society, and one of the founding members of the Little Falls Historical Society.

Eagle Down by John Frazier

January 19, 2023

Donnie Coffin was somewhat of an enigma. Those who remember him recall him as an easygoing guy, but not many people have vivid memories of him.

Little Falls Philanthropy by Louis W. Baum

January 2, 2023

What did wealthy people do with their money? Some spent lavishly on themselves and their families caring little for their fellow man; others were philanthropic. Over the years, the citizens of Little Falls have greatly benefited in many different ways from the philanthropy of several of its leading residents who lived here in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

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LF Historical Society Writing Series dedication to Hector Allen

Growing Up on The Southside 1957 – 1970 by Gary T. Staffo

Happy 70th Birthday to Little League in Little Falls

Little Falls Pool Halls – Reflections on a Bygone Era

Little Falls South Side in the 1970s by David P. Talaba

The Lighter Side of Vietnam by Schuyler Van Horn

SPORTS CITY U.S.A. – LITTLE FALLS, N.Y. by Ray Lenarcic

The Old Bank Building Survives and Thrives by Pat Frezza-Gressler

Palatine Germans in Search of a Land to Call Home by Ginny Rogers

Growing up on the South Side from the early 1950’s through the late 1960’s By Donald F. Staffo

A Pizza Story by James Papaleo

South Side Cigar Stores by Gary Staffo

Every Legend Has a Beginning The Hubie Brown Story by David Dinneen

2020 Writing Series Dedicated to former LFHS Teacher Harold Templeman

1960’s Rock and Roll in Little Falls by Joe Chapadeau

In some ways, the story of rock & roll in Little Falls begins and ends on opposite sides of West Monroe Street.

In 1955, my siblings and I were all attending Monroe Street elementary school in Little Falls. During that summer, we all participated in a talent contest at the school playground. I sang the Elvis Presley song “Heartbreak Hotel” and my brother Gary sang “The Wayward Wind.” Those playground performances earned us our first public performance at a weekly band concert in Western (Burke) Park.

Gary and I took some guitar lessons at Salvi’s Music Store, but we never got too far with that. But in 1957, a wild man named Jerry Lee Lewis came on television on the Ed Sullivan Show and blew the roof off with “Whole Lotta Shakin.” I was hooked since he was playing piano in a way I wanted to imitate. I had been taking piano lessons for years and I was ready to create my own style, so rock & roll came naturally to me. I began spending hours banging on my old upright piano singing and playing this exciting new music.

The famous movie “American Graffiti” asks the question: “where were you in ’62?”

Well, I was in my senior year at Little Falls high school and that spring Gary and I came up with the idea to form our own rock & roll band. So, I got my classmate Steve Malek to join in since Steve had studied guitar with the well-known Carmen Carmanica from Utica. Also in our first band called The Cruisers were George Gregory on drums and Lori Snyder on rhythm guitar; they were both from Little Falls. I am not sure who came up with the name The Cruisers, but it seemed to catch on.

As The Cruisers, we played our first gig at the Mohawk Valley Country Club on April 7, 1962 and a week later we played our first paid gig at the Little Falls high school gym on Main Street. We received $35 for the five of us, $7 apiece, not bad for 1962 we thought. We were an immediate success and we were on our way.

Big changes came in 1963.

There were some places that we could not play because there was no piano for me, so I became the new drummer since George had gone off to college. So too had Steve, but I was able to get a great guitarist named Tom Dobrovich who was my classmate at Utica College. Henry Dise from Little Falls joined the band as our bass guitar player and we began playing dances and clubs up and down the Valley doing all of our favorite songs of the day like “Runaround Sue” and “The Wanderer.”

In 1964, more changes occurred as Henry left the band and Gary took over playing bass guitar in addition to his front man singing duties. Also, a popular band that we admired, The Original Playboys from Utica, had broken up and we were able to acquire their guitar player Tony Scialdone, A.K.A. Tony Troy who was also my classmate at Utica College and is still my good friend today. Tony performed in 2018 with the great musician Stevie Rigo and me at the Little Falls Historical Society Museum as part of their history of rock & roll in Little Falls exhibit. Longtime Little Falls rock and roll vocalist Mike Walo also played with Stevie and me at another Historical Society performance. We got called icons, imagine that! I digress –

Up to 1964, Gary was our main singer, but now we had four singers as Tony sang falsetto songs like “Sherry” and Tom sang beautiful ballads like “For Your Love.”

By 1965, the so-called British Invasion was in full swing so it was time for us to change our name, style and image.

I returned to playing keyboards as I bought a portable Vox organ like the one played by The Animals so now we could play “The House of the Rising Sun” properly. We needed a new drummer and found Larry Miller from Dolgeville. Tom formed his own band and we were a quartet again. Our new name The King Beats can be seen on the drumhead in a band promo picture taken at the “castle” in Middleville.

King Beat band members in a promotional picture.

A major highlight in our musical careers was our appearance on the television show Twist-a-rama USA on September 19, 1965. It was a local dance show on Sunday mornings hosted by Hank Brown from Little Falls and featured local bands playing live. It was required to have an original song, so I wrote and we recorded a song called “Nothing About Life At All” which we performed on the show and it is on the Twist-a-rama album. The song was in the newly popular Bob Dylan style and featured me playing harmonica as well. By now we were playing places like Doyle’s Lounge in Utica and Grippe’s and Club Royale in Frankfort.

King Beat band members in a Twist-a-rama photo with host Hank Brown.

A unique feature of the band was our mode of transportation, a 1950 Cadillac hearse we bought, customized and painted gold. It turned lots of heads and got lots of attention.

Our favorite place to play was at the Sunday afternoon teen dances at the old DeCarlo-Staffo post which was located across from the fire station on William Street in Little Falls. My dad ran the door and my mom ran the refreshment stand and everyone had great fun. At one point, we had four local girls on stage as the Cruiserettes: Laura Leslie, Sherilyn Carrig, Gen Ashley and Nora Buccafurno. Also, a frequent guest was a sax player from Herkimer named Chickie Vennera who later became a Hollywood actor.

The last version of the King Beats from 1966-67 had me on organ, Gary on guitar, Roger McCabe from Utica on bass and Jim Kilts from St Johnsville on drums as Tony and Larry had left the band. 1967 was “the summer of love” when Gary and I drove the Caddy hearse to California and sold it in San Francisco. Upon returning home, I went on to teach school and Gary joined a band called the Joint Commission.

The Cruisers’ 1950 Cadillac hearse.On April 12, 1968, Gary crashed his Chevy on the Gorge View cutoff and was killed instantly, but fortunately none of his passengers were badly injured. Cruiser or King Beat no more, it was for me, and maybe all of Little Falls, the day the music died.

In 2011, a well-attended Little Falls Historical Society walking tour of Church Street cemetery included Gary’s grave. Several people in attendance shared personal 1960’s-era rock and roll memories about Gary, the bands and the gold hearse. The Cruisers and King Beats had clearly influenced an entire generation of Little Falls people.

The 2017 Historical Society Old Bank Museum exhibit “the golden era of rock and roll in Little Falls” followed as did a number of articles for the Historical Society’s 2017 writing series. All of these articles can be viewed on the Historical Society’s website. A 2018 cemetery tour also included Gary’s gravesite and I was asked to speak about my brother and our band days; I was both pleased and honored to take part.

Fifty years after Gary’s death, The Cruisers’ saga had come full circle as we arrived at his gravesite – directly across the street from the old Monroe Street school where it all began. Rock on all Rock City Rockers!

Joe Chapadeau is a member of the Little Falls Historical Society.

WCA Formally Opened by Mena Cerone and Pat Rockwell

WCA Formally Opened

BRILLIANT FUNCTION WAS HELD LAST EVENING

Over 500 people of the City were in attendance

Escort for the visitors provided by the Girl Scouts

Much enthusiasm manifested over the furnishings and arrangements

This proud headline appeared in the local newspaper 100 years ago announcing the official opening and dedication of the Women’s Christian Association. On November 22, 1920, the doors were opened to the public from 4 o’clock until 10 o’clock and what followed far exceeded expectations. Over 500 people braved the inclement weather “both overhead and underfoot” to view the restorations and improvements to this historical home which was now the permanent residence for the WCA.

Visitors were escorted by the Girl Scouts in full regalia and Mrs. George Hardin Smith, a board member.

Mrs. Loomis Burrell was the chairman of the entertainment committee which made the arrangements for this successful event held in memory of Anne Louise Burrell, a pioneer who worked for the welfare and interests of women. Loomis, David and Elizabeth Burrell gave the building to the people of Little Falls in their sister’s memory and made all this possible. The Burrell family also donated $12,000 as well for renovations. In today’s valuation, it would be well over $ 163,000 .

Centrally located, the building sits on the corner of Jackson and Garden Streets and has 200 years of a long and noteworthy history. This beautiful Federal style home was built in 1827 by Judge Nathanial Benton. Benton was county judge, state senator, NY Secretary of State, President of the Herkimer County Bank and the first President of Little Falls. In 1856, he authored a seminal book of the history of Herkimer County containing first hand interviews with the few remaining veterans who served in the Revolutionary War. He died on June 19, 1869.
Historically, the WCA sponsored many events for the young women of Little Falls in which to participate. Girl Scout Day Camp was held at the summer home of Mr. and Mrs. Loomis Burrell at Spruce Lake. Other activities included:

fashion shows featuring clothing from E. Cramer and Sons and Newman furriers in Utica.
a popular nursery school, girl scouts, brownies, swimming classes, tennis lessons.
Teas and Talks with guest speaker, Mrs. Kasner, the local physical education teacher, talking about good posture and exercise.
The Mothers Club, bridge lessons, bazaars, holiday parties, bowling teams, a teen program sponsoring baby-sitting services, and a sewing group. The list goes on…

Today, the WCA serves the community as a meeting house for local organizations including the LF Historical Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, a bridge club and Fortnightly.

Private bedrooms and bedroom suites are available by the month or for short stays for working or retired women.

Presently there are 11 women serving on the Board with one paid employee who oversees the upkeep of the house. The Board of Directors has the fiduciary responsibility for maintaining and preserving the character of this historic building while insuring the intended purpose of the house. Part of the mission is to promote the intellectual and social development of women. In 1983, the Board first recognized women for their service to this community. In 2004, the tradition continued with the Women of Distinction breakfast held at the Travel Lodge. The money raised goes into a scholarship fund awarded to a deserving female senior planning to further her education.

As originally stated 100 years ago, “It is a fine thing for the city of Little Falls to have such a splendid W.C.A. home as that which the local organization now possesses and the promoters deserve the gratitude not only of the membership which is directly served, but of the community as a whole. The formal opening of the building adds another to the many civic advantages which Little Falls enjoys and which are superior to those of most cities of its size.”

Mena Cerone and Pat Rockwell are members of the Little Falls Historical Society.

Little Falls WCA is located at 534 Garden Street.

THE 240TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLES OF STONE ARABIA AND KLOCK’S FIELD By Jeffrey Gressler

Destruction, revenge, timely reinforcements, and a reversal of outcomes, the October 19, 1780 Battles of Stone Arabia and Klock’s Field had it all when it came to local Revolutionary War drama. This article breathes new life into these long ago consequential events.

TOTAL DESTRUCTION

Dozens of barns and houses lay in smoking ashes. By mid-October 1780, the British campaign of destruction in the Mohawk and Schoharie Valleys carried out by the combined forces of Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Johnsons’s army of Regulars, Loyalists and Indians, Indian Chieftain and Captain Joseph Brant’s Volunteers, and Butler’s Rangers had laid waste to “everything except the soil itself” in a twenty mile wide swath from Fort Hunter in the Schoharie Valley to Stone Arabia north of Palatine Bridge. This was the fourth year of such destruction.

As Johnson ‘s army neared the end of its rampage in Stone Arabia, Captain John Brown’s force of 380 Patriot volunteers sallied out from nearby Fort Paris thinking that they were in pursuit of a smaller Loyalist force. Instead, Brown and his Massachusetts’ Levies, New York Militia and Rangers stumbled into an ambush of around 900 Loyalist troops. The ensuing battle was brief. Brown and 29 other Patriots lay dead. Today, many of their bodies are interred about a mile from the battlefield in the burial grounds behind the Stone Arabia Dutch Reformed Church (1788). These graves still evoke strong emotion.

BRITISH REVENGE

After burning two churches at Stone Arabia, the British confident forces moved southward toward the Mohawk River where a different fate awaited them.

Burning churches at Stone Arabia was in part revenge for the August 27, 1774 meeting of members of the District of Palatine, of the County of Tryon at nearby Louck’s Tavern that produced a historic document stating that these Patriots would join with other districts to defend their rights and liberties. This document preceded our July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence by nearly two years.

TIMELY REINFORCEMENTS

Moving to intercept the Loyalist force was a combined army of around 900 Patriot militia men and 50 Oneida Indians under the command of Brigadier General Robert Van Rensselaer; the Indians were led by Chief Louis Atayataronghta. The Loyalists and Patriots were two armies in search of a battlefield.

The Patriots followed the trail of burning buildings and divided into three columns near St. Johnsville. Van Rensselaer’s army had marched all night and into the day without proper food or rest and they would soon be positioned to cut off the retreat of Johnson’s forces.

Johnson deployed his regular troops, Loyalists, Brant’s Indians, and Jagers for battle. Van Rensselaer’s army of rebel militia from Central Albany County and New York State Levies was deployed opposite. Patriot forces were able to outflank Johnson’s forces which proved decisive.

The engagement commenced in the late afternoon on Sheldon Klock’s farm and a running battle ensued from Failing’s Orchards or Nellis Flatt on to today’s area south of Hansen’s Aggregates rock quarries and west of St. Johnsville at Klock’s Field or Fox’s Mills.

THE TIDE TURNS

Colonels Lewis DuBois’ and John Warner’s columns engaged in intense fighting with Johnson’s forces. The weight of the battle that began at Stone Arabia turned in the Patriots’ favor at Klock’s Field. As darkness fell, Van Rensselaer realized that in the smoke-shrouded din of battle, his left and right flanks were firing at one another and he ordered his left column to fall back to the farmhouse of John Klock near Timmerman’s Mill.

View the entire article and photo gallery on the virtual exhibit page here.

Old Bank Building Reaches a Milestone by Pat Frezza-Gressler

OLD BANK BUILDING REACHES A MILESTONE | Little Falls Historical Society Museum

Photo submitted – National Herkimer County Bank and Presbyterian Church in the background – (Kinney Plaza) circa 1860.

Constructed of native stone in 1833 as the first bank in Herkimer County and placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1970, the Little Falls Historical Society’s Old Bank Building Museum has had a storied past. 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of this designation and it is time to celebrate this great building as the survivor that it is!

The current generation of Old Bank Building Museum stewards stands on the shoulders of the small group of community visionaries who succeeded in their efforts to save the structure from the 1960’s urban renewal wrecking ball. Let’s begin by highlighting the chronology of important events related to this 1970 landmark designation.

Little Falls’ 1961 Sesquicentennial Celebration served as the catalyst for a small group of “history buffs” to secure a central location where important community artifacts would be permanently housed, displayed, and made available for research purposes. This group first met officially on November 29, 1962, and what would become our Historical Society was launched. Their headquarters was the GAR room upstairs in City Hall. In 1963 the Historical Society was granted a permanent charter by NYS.

By 1962, the Kennedy administration’s Urban Renewal program was in full swing; Little Falls received its first grant and demolition began on the south side of Main Street from Second Street eastward to William Street. A phase two grant was to be used to demolish the block of buildings between Ann and Second Streets, including the historic Old Bank Building. Historical Society president Dr. Fred Sabin first voiced the idea of saving the historic structure in 1965.

Of critical importance was the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. Lady Bird Johnson headed the commission which developed a national inventory of properties and buildings central to American character and identity. A mechanism had been created to protect such properties. What seems like commonsense today, historic preservation was at that time a radical idea “standing in the way of progress.”

The Little Falls Urban Renewal Agency purchased the building in 1966 and slated it for demolition as part of Phase 2.

Using this law as a guiding principle, the early members of the Historical Society stood four-square against the demolition of the Old Bank Building which upset many others, including the then-current administration. Old Bank Building demolition would allow for a larger parking lot for the new Herkimer County Trust building. The preserved need for fourteen extra parking spaces was pitted against the preservation of an important piece of community history.

This struggle played out for the next four years until the 1970 placement of the building on the NRHP; at that point, the structure was sacrosanct; some in the community were livid that a small group of “backward leaning preservationists” had stymied progress. Would anyone today trade the museum for those fourteen parking spaces?

Photo submitted – National Herkimer County Bank – circa 1860.

WHY WAS THE BUILDING IMPORTANT?

To quote from a 1966 NYS Historic Trust newspaper article, “The old Herkimer County Bank Building, dating from 1833, is a work of the Greek Revival style, characteristic of the period. To discover a 130-year old bank is itself important, moreover, while much of the architecture of this period is constructed of wood, here we find a stone building with cut stone used in a monumental manner.”

Current Historical Society member Elaine Sperbeck remembers her father Harold being on the phone with the National Historic Preservation Commission in Washington making the case for Registry inclusion for the Old Bank Building. Using the Commission’s three criteria, Sperbeck reasoned that the building was associated with events significant to local history, that the building was associated with persons significant in local history, and that the building does embody distinctive characteristics of a type and period of architecture and construction.

The Old Bank Building met each of these criteria and on March 5, 1970, the structure was officially placed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Photo submitted – Portion of the poster used to generate community support for saving Old Bank Building.

The Old Bank Building then sat in a sort of limbo and neglect from 1970 until 1977 when the Historical Society purchased the structure. Seven years of extensive restoration followed, and by 1985, Historical Society artifacts had been safely moved to the new museum.

The building that had served as the first bank in Herkimer County, as the office of the local Red Cross, as a mortuary, as a temporary location for the Little Falls National Bank, as the Railway Express office, and as a storage area for Lovenheim’s dry goods store had become the primary repository of local history.

On this 50th anniversary, current members of the Little Falls Historical Society wish to thank the following individuals for their courage and vision in saving and then renovating the Old Bank Building:

Edward and Mary Louise Cooney, Natalie Derby, John Gallagher, John George, Mary Grace, Lydia Loucks, Robert McEvoy, Dr. Fred Sabin, Harold Sperbeck, and Ralph Van Horn.

Apologies if anyone involved in this effort was not included in this listing. Additionally, it is important to extend thanks to all those individuals, past and present, who followed in the footsteps of the above visionaries by their involvement and stewardship of the museum.

As Margaret Mead’s famous quote states: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Although the world certainly wasn’t changed, thanks to the efforts of the small group of committed citizens in saving the building from urban renewal, the Little Falls Historical Society remains an important community institution with plenty of parking nearby!

Pat Frezza-Gressler is a member of the Little Falls Historical Society.

Little Falls and Women’s Suffrage by Jeffrey Gressler

Thomas Jefferson’s 1776 Declaration of Independence proclaimed all men as equals, but our Founding Fathers left the horrors of slavery unsettled and the status of women unequal in the United States Constitution. Abagail Adams’ plea to her husband to “remember the women” went unheeded.

This article addresses national and local events prior to the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment granting women’s suffrage.

BACKGROUND

Little Falls and Women's Suffrage The early-1800’s Second Great Awakening witnessed a number of consequential social movements, including a more aggressive abolition movement, universal public education, Transcendentalism, and “first wave feminism” associated with the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention; this historical meeting produced the Declaration of Sentiments demanding overall gender equality as well as women’s suffrage. The Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton monumental partnership emerged soon thereafter.

This Declaration of Sentiments begins by asserting the equality of all men and women and reiterates that both genders are endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It argued that women were repressed by the government and the patriarchal society of which it was part.

The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870 during Reconstruction, stated that the right to vote could not be denied on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Suffragists reasoned that women should thus be allowed to vote, but that right was still a half century away for white women while women of color had to wait almost a century to vote.

Around 1903, Englishwoman Emily Pankhurst helped bring the push for woman’s suffrage out of polite and subdued gatherings by generating splashy news articles and getting herself arrested. American suffragists followed Pankhurst’s lead.

By 1900, some western states guaranteed voting rights for women, first in Wyoming and then in Colorado, Idaho, and Utah. Washington state followed in 1910, California in 1911 and in 1912 Kansas, Oregon, and Arizona. As each state granted women suffrage, pressure grew in Congress for national action.

LEADERSHIP TORCH IS PASSED

The elderly Anthony retired as National American Woman’s Suffrage Association president in 1900; Carrie Chapman Catt and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw stepped to the forefront as the nation entered the progressive era; social, political, and economic reform became the norm. Thousands of college-educated women had entered the workforce and became the driving force behind various social movements in public life.

The 16th Amendment, federal income taxes, the 17th Amendment, direct election of senators, and the 18th Amendment, prohibition, were all added to the U.S. Constitution between 1913 and 1919. The 19th Amendment, woman’s suffrage, would follow in 1920, but only after protracted struggle.

The liquor and textile industries, big city political machines, and cultural conservativism all blocked the way for various reasons, but women marched steadily towards suffrage.

Female suffragists were well-dressed in traditional women’s attire so as not to appear “too masculine” to assuage concerns that voting would make women less feminine.

LOCAL SUFFRAGE EVENTS

Events in Little Falls were much influenced by both national and state trends. Little Falls became a “hotbed” of suffrage activity in Herkimer County. Zaida Zoller’s home on Garden Street was a gathering point for suffrage efforts; women’s suffrage giants Susan B. Anthony and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw both attended meetings in the Zoller home.

Shaw compared allowing men to decide the fate of women’s suffrage to submitting the subject of the equality of a goose to a fox.

In 1894, a debate on women’s suffrage was held at the Methodist Episcopal Church on Albany Street and Susan B. Anthony was in Little Falls from September 11-13, 1894. While here, she also addressed a group of suffragists at Temperance Hall in the Bidleman Block on Main Street. She stayed with Mrs. Jaynes on Ann Street while in Little Falls. During her Temperance Hall address, Anthony spoke of why she believed that the ballot should be placed in the hands of her sex.

Anthony added: “Women, we may as well be dogs braying at the moon as petitioners without the right to vote.”

On the national level, Teddy Roosevelt’s Progressive Party’s “Bull Moose” platform called for woman’s suffrage in 1912, but the two major parties kept their distance.

In 1913, a women’s suffrage torch was carried from Mantuck, Long Island to Buffalo and as the torch passed through Herkimer County, Mrs. Frank Houghton carried it from Little Falls to Utica. July 28 saw the formation of the Women’s Political Union in Little Falls. That same year, women from Little Falls, Ilion, and Herkimer marched in the first local suffrage parade in Utica. In 1915, a huge suffrage parade was held in NYC with over 30,000 marchers, including an estimated 5000 men.

In November 1915, Herkimer County voted down a suffrage amendment to the state constitution. On June 12, 1916, the Herkimer County Suffrage Convention convened at the YWCA (then part of the YMCA) in Little Falls. A statewide petition campaign generated over one million signatures calling for women’s suffrage.

MOMENTUM STRENGTHENS

On the national level, much political pressure was brought to bear. In 1916, a California to Washington, D.C. march took place and President Woodrow Wilson was presented with a petition containing over 200,000 signatures. That same year, Alice Paul organized the National Women’s Party; a year later the group began the first peaceful protest outside of the White House; referred to as the “silent sentinels,” a number of purple, white and yellow-gold sashed suffragists were arrested. While in prison, Paul and other women engaged in hunger strikes and were force fed by prison authorities.

The bad publicity was a nightmare for President Wilson and he slowly began to change his position.

One of the posters being held stated: “President Wilson is deceiving the world when he appears as the prophet of democracy. President Wilson has oppressed those who demand democracy for this country. He is responsible for the disenfranchisement of millions of Americans. We in America know this. The world will find him out.”

Jeanette Rankin became the first woman to secure national office when she was elected to serve as a Congresswoman from Montana in 1916; while in Congress, she introduced the bill that would eventually become the 19th Amendment.

Locally, on February 28 and March 1, 1917, a suffrage school was conducted by NYC lawyer Elinoe Berns at the YWCA (YMCA). On March 26, a suffrage library was made available there. On April 1, The Little Falls Woman’s Suffrage Party met at the YWCA (YMCA) with chairwoman Miss Zaida Zoller presiding. Mrs. J.D. Frederiksen organized the event. And on August 29-30, the Herkimer County suffrage delegation attended the state suffrage convention in Saratoga Springs while carrying a petition showing 94% support of County women for suffrage.

The same year, Zoller also arranged for Dr. Anna Howard Shaw to speak at a Little Falls Suffrage Party meeting. Little Falls Mayor Abram Zoller supported his twin sister’s work.

A major plateau was attained when a woman’s suffrage amendment was added to the NYS constitution on November 6, 1917. Women had gained the right to vote in all New York elections. The Empire State had long been thought to be the key to national suffrage for women.

A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

In 1918, the House of Representatives approved the 19th Amendment by a two-thirds vote, but World War I slowed the Senate vote; in May 1919, the Senate finally approved the amendment with its own two-thirds vote and thus, the amendment had been Constitutionally proposed and moved onto the states for ratification.

On August 26. 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to approve the amendment via a majority vote; the Constitutionally mandated three-quarters of the states had approved the amendment and the woman’s suffrage amendment had thus been officially ratified and became part of our Constitution.

Success came about because of hundreds of state and local campaigns across the country; this was not a “top down” process. It was a piecemeal struggle with many setbacks. The nationwide state by state campaign of parades and public speaking tours put pressure on local politicians.

Once the 19th Amendment was safely in place, Carrie Chapman Catt went onto establish the League of Women Voters (LWV) to help guide women in political matters. Locally, Zoller was elected to lead the Herkimer County LWV in 1921 and again in 1922. Miss Lynda Billings, also from Little Falls, was elected group treasurer.

And so, the historical struggle that gained momentum in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848 resulted in the triumphant ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920 and the single largest extension of voting rights in American history; 26 million American women had gained the right to vote.

A great story, but we must not forget that African American women (and men) were still barred from the voting booth by Jim Crow racial barriers such as literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses and other racial barriers. Native Americans and Asian immigrants were largely excluded from citizenship entirely.

Millions of women were given the right to vote by the 19th Amendment, but millions more were still denied suffrage. Shamefully, most white suffragists then abandoned the cause, leaving their fellow suffragists of color to continue campaigning for voting rights.

The history books largely leave out how women of color were “sold out” after the ratification of the 19th Amendment. The names of Black suffragists Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells and of course Sojourner Truth should stand alongside Stanton, Anthony, Catt, and Shaw in the history of the women’s suffrage movement.

THE SUFFRAGE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

The 1965 Voting Rights Act finally delivered the right of suffrage to African American men and women. The woman’s suffrage movement needs to be seen not as a triumphant culmination, but one landmark in a struggle for equal rights for all citizens that is not over yet.

Even today, some individuals and groups seek to deny the right of suffrage to millions by limiting poll access under the unfounded guise of combatting “voter fraud.” The fraud instead lies with those who have restricted suffrage for different groups of Americans throughout our history.

As a side note, a women’s suffrage monument on the Mall in Central Park in New York City was dedicated in August. The fourteen-foot tall monument features likenesses of women’s suffrage giants Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony.

Jeffrey Gressler is a member of the Little Falls Historical Society.

The Honorable H.P. (Homer Peter) Snyder and the American Dream by Jessie Snyder Thompson Huberty

As told by his great granddaughter Jessie Snyder Thompson Huberty

At the end of the nineteenth century, Little Falls was enjoying the fruits of the Industrial Revolution. New factories were springing up in the town located beside the Erie Canal. It was a beehive of activity.

A young man from nearby Amsterdam, H.P. Snyder arrived in Little Falls with nothing but a desire to do something, build something. Although I doubt that he thought of it in these terms, his life was to be the embodiment of the American Dream. In 1872 when he was nine, H.P. was taken out of school, his formal education came to an end, there was no question of him continuing. He had to contribute to the well-being of his family and thus, he was sent to work in one of the knitting mills in town. All the learning that he displayed later in his life was self-taught.

In 1886, aged 23 and recently married to Jessie Falla Breese from a distinguished family from Wyoming, Pennsylvania, H.P. settled on making his fortune in Little Falls. They had a son Charles in 1883, followed by a daughter Estelle in 1885, and finally another daughter Jessie Florence in 1893. Charles, his son and heir, died in 1906 from the measles at age 23.

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL BUSINESSMAN EMERGES

After a time managing the Saxon Knitting Mill, H.P. turned what had been an unprofitable business into a thriving one. He and Michael G. Fisher, a mechanic, developed an attachment to the knitting machine that considerably improved the texture of fabrics. They went on to form a partnership, the Snyder Fisher Company, selling their machines at first in Herkimer County, then throughout New York State, and eventually, around the entire nation.

All the while, Snyder and Fisher continued to manufacture knitting machines and inventing ways to make them better. H. P. also searched for something else to do. He soon realized that there was another market opening up, one that he felt confident to tap. A new division of the company was formed to manufacture bicycles.

The company’s first bicycles were named The Newport Swell and the The Newport Belle. After buying out Michael Fisher, H.P. formed the H.P. Snyder Mfg. Co. in 1894. It became a steady place for employment in Little Falls and was successful from the time it opened its doors until the firm was sold in 1972. Over the years, a partnership was formed with DeLancey Harris and the D.P. Harris Co. to produce Rollfast Bicycles. The company also manufactured bicycles for Montgomery Ward and Western Auto under their own label, Excelsor.

THE WORLD TRAVELER

Always looking for new ways to learn, H.P. felt travel was a necessary part of his education. The Snyders made several trips to South American countries. And then in late 1908, the Snyders and their close friends the Frederick Tealls set out on a four and a half month trip around the world. The major motivation for the trip was the Snyder – Teall mutual grandson Homer Snyder Teall who was recently born in Manila, Phillipines where his father Lt. Edward Hall Teall was stationed along with his wife Estelle Snyder.

Prior to the Phillipines,, the Snyders visited San Francisco. Honolulu, Yokohama, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Leaving the Phillipines, they proceeded around the world via Singapore, Penang, Aden, Colombo, Suez and finally Naples. Here they left their ship and proceeded overland visiting much of Italy, France and England before heading home across the Atlantic. They returned to Little Falls by rail from Newfoundland. H.P. had set himself on his chosen path in life and achieved success, now he felt it was time to give back.

BUSINESSMAN TURNED POLITICIAN

Always interested in the betterment of Little Falls, he served on the school board and the Police and Fire Boards. He then set his eyes on politics and Congress. He first ran in 1912 but was defeated, but in 1915, he ran again and won. He left the running of his company to his son-in-law, the now Col. Edward Hall Teall, and settled in Washington where he spent the next ten years over five terms representing Herkimer County in Congress as a Republican.

In Washington, H.P. became friends with Calvin Collidge and Warren Harding, the latter asked him to be his running mate in 1920, but H.P. declined. He felt that he belonged in Congress. H.P. served on chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee that generated the Indian Citizen Act of 1924 (A.K.A. the Snyder Act), this was the piece of legislation which H.P. was proudest. This law granted long overdue United States citizenship to all Native American Indians.

H.P. SNYDER’S FINAL CHAPTER

In 1925, he returned to Little Falls full-time, spending the rest of his life with his first love, manufacturing. He was president of H.P. Snyder & Co. until his death in December, 1937. He also served as vice-president and a board director of the Little Falls National Bank. H.P. Snyder left his heirs not only with a financial inheritance, but also with a life well-lived.

H.P.’s was an America where anything was possible and he proved it by going from a little boy of nine working in a knitting mill to being an industrialist, manufacturer, and legislator who was a close friend with several Presidents.

Jessie Snyder Thompson Huberty is a member of the Little Falls Historical Society.

Early Little Falls Buildings and Organizations By Jeffrey Gressler

Octagon Church Monument | Little Falls Historical Society Museum_

The Octagon Church monument located in a small park alongside lower Church Street.

Perhaps the finest view from any Little Falls public building was the view from the Octagon Church in the early 1800’s. Sitting above today’s intersection of Church, School and Prospect Streets, a panoramic view of the river and valley below and cliffs and hills beyond was possible from the Church and burial grounds alongside it.

Most Little Falls residents know about the Octagon Church, but how many of us know about the Concord Society, the Aqueduct Association, the Ellice Estate, the Old Yellow House and the Old Stone Schoolhouse? Each of these were important in early 19^th century Little Falls history. This is an attempt to breathe new life into this era.

There were at least four Indian trails through Little Falls, two on each side of the river, in part to provide portages around the Little Falls river rapids. Indian spiritual incantations were likely offered nearby the river to gain favor with the natural spirits so central to Native American existence.

These Indian trails eventually became city streets and roadways. A 1790 map shows both the “Salisbury Road” located where Salisbury Street is today and a “Fairfeld – Newport Road” where Church Street runs. Another became the route of the Utica and Schenectady Turnpike, Route 5 today.

Let’s begin with the Edward Ellice Estate. Ellice was a well-connected Scot who used his wealth and influence in the late-1700’s to gain tittle to all what is now Little Falls. During the Revolutionary War, Little Falls had a functioning lumber mill and gristmill. Ellice controlled both operations.

Most everyone who lived in Little Falls from the 1790’s-1820’s were his tenants; this stymied population growth and economic development. Ellice maintained an iron grip, keeping the cost of living high and making exorbitant profits for himself and his son Sir Alexander Ellice.

The earliest religious services in Little Falls were likely held at either the gristmill or at the nearby Old Yellow House, both located near today’s Medical Arts Building on West Main Street. The Old Yellow House (1788) was John Porteous’ residence, a store and later a hotel.

Octagon Church oil painting by Gwen Lee.

The religious-based Concord Society built the Octagon Church between 1792-1796, although improvements continued for the next twenty-two years. Records indicate that the church was constructed “under the direction of John Porteous, Abraham Neely, Nicholas Thumb and Henry Klock Escuires,” all members of the Concord Society.

As a side note, the six-lock Western Inland Navigation Canal began operation in 1794 allowing boats to avoid the river rapids. The Erie and Barge Canals came later.

Often referred to as “the pepper box,” the yellow-painted, eight-sided Octagon Church was used by Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists and Catholics alike. Services began there in 1796. Early on, parishioners sat on floor joists during services in the dirt-floored structure. The church was 55 feet long on the short diameter, 60 feet on its long diameter, had eighteen-foot ceilings and its front door faced east towards the Fairfield – Newport Road. Its roof sloped upward to a cupola topped by hollow gilt balls. The church could seat 300.

The village’s first burial grounds were beside the church until the 1820’s when those bodies were reburied in the new Church Street Cemetery. It was thought that the decomposing bodies polluted the drinking water of those living downhill from the cemetery.

A stone Octagon Church monument nearby where the Church once stood was dedicated in 1911 by the Astrogen Chapter of the D.A.R. and Mayor Timothy Dasey during a Little Falls centennial ceremony. The monument is now located in a small tree-filled park.

Continue reading the entire article here.

Jeffrey Gressler is a member of the Little Falls Historical Society.

This Writing Series was first published on the Times Telegram in a two-part series.

Octagon Church just one historical gem of Little Falls

Early history of Little Falls lives on in various ways

Early Base Ball in Little Falls and the Little Falls Baseball Association By David Krutz

The origin of the sport of base ball has never been determined – the myth that Cooperstown’s Abner Doubleday was the father of the game has long ago been debunked. It may have evolved from an English game called rounders, or from a game called “town ball.” No matter, for base ball did evolve and just prior to the Civil War the rules of the game were standardized and base ball fever swept across America, earning the sport the sobriquet, the “National Game.”

Base ball, in one form or another, has long been a part of the fabric of Little Falls. As early as 1827, the village Board of Trustees enacted an ordinance that no person shall “play Ball” on any village street or on the towing path of the Erie Canal. Unfortunately, no record has yet been found of the earliest Little Falls base ball teams.

Soon after the Civil War, “town teams” were formed in most Mohawk Valley villages. Among the earliest Little Falls teams were the Rough & Readys, the Pastimes and the Excelsiors. These teams were essentially rostered by the same core of players but, for whatever reason, changed their team name every few years. In 1867 the Rough & Readys bested the Phoenix of Middleville and were awarded the silver-banded, rosewood bat symbolic of the championship of Herkimer County. As the Pastimes, the Little Falls nine repeated this fete in 1868 and 1869 beating back challenges from the Armory club of Ilion. In 1868 Armory backers unsuccessfully attempted to bribe three Little Falls players with money and employment at Remington Arms, and in 1869 Armory brought in three “ringers” from the famed Stars ballclub of Brooklyn. One of the “ringers” was Candy Cummings, whom many believed to be the best pitcher in the United States. (Candy Cummings is credited with inventing the curveball and was a 1939 inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.) Cummings did not fare very well against the Pastime batsmen, surrendering 24 runs and losing the game. In 1874, now dubbed the Excelsiors, the Little Falls team won two out of three games from the New York State amateur champions, Chelsea of Brooklyn, and for a time held the bragging rights as the Empire State’s best team.

In the 1880’s, the most notable Little Falls teams were the Alerts and the Rocktons.

An article in the Saturday Globe said of the Alerts, “The northern portion of Eastern Park was their stamping ground and there admirers of the national pastime would gather in great numbers to see them swing the hickory and make the angles.” The Rockton team played up on “Skinner’s Flats” and was often composed entirely of African American ball players from Little Falls and the surrounding area. On one such occasion, the Rocktons took on the “Heavy Hitters” of Canajoharie and trounced them 33 to 5 in a game shortened to six innings. Afterwards, both teams retired to the Nellis House in Canajoharie for a wine supper.

To accommodate these teams, base ball fields sprung up on the Petrie farm on the Eatonville Road (present day Route 169), on Casler’s Flats (present day Southern Avenue), up on the hill behind Furnace Street (the aforementioned Skinner’s Flats) and on the “upper side” of Eastern Park.

Besides the regular teams in the 1880’s, it seemed that everyone in Little Falls was on a team and playing base ball. Each hose company had a team, as did the policemen. The mechanics of Reddy’s Foundry played against the “molders” of that mill, the north side of Main Street took on the south side of the street, and a team composed of doctors went up against a team of lawyers. The printers “lathered and shampooed” the barbers 34 to 23 and won a year of free shaves, and the Little Falls Elks regularly vied with other area Elks lodges. With such an interest in base ball, many Little Falls residents believed that their growing and progressive community should have a professional base ball team. Three men stepped up to bat to achieve that goal.

In the spring of 1886 Frank Burgor, Horace Tozer and Stuart Devendorf formed the Little Falls Base Ball Association (LFBBA), a stock holding company which aimed at bringing professional base ball to this village.

Burgor and Tozer owned stores on Main Street in Little Falls, and were ball players themselves, and Devendorf was the proprietor of the Girvan House. Many prominent village residents quickly bought stock in the association, providing the capital for the venture. The new team, simply referred to as Little Falls, was invited into the Central New York League along with professional teams from Norwich, Oneida and Canastota. All the LFBBA still needed was a suitable field to play on and pro ball players.

Read the entire article and view the online exhibit with photo gallery here.

Chief Alfred Munger was a fireman’s fireman by Scott Kinville

Little Falls Fire Chief Alfred “Al” Munger

Former Little Falls Fire Chief Alfred “Al” Munger was a true giant in the fire service, both inside and outside the city.

After serving in the United States Army during World War II, Munger joined the Little Falls Fire Department in 1950. The department was much different than it is today — this was a time of open cab apparatus, rubber turnout (firefighting) gear and an “air pack” consisted of a damp sponge covering the nose and mouth.

From the beginning, he had a deep desire to learn everything about the fire service, and it would pay off as he quickly rose the ranks. In March 1967, he succeeded Abram Swartz as chief of the Little Falls Fire Department.

As fire chief, Munger would prove to be a very effective leader both on the fireground and behind the desk. Overall, Little Falls would purchase six pieces of apparatus (vehicles) for the fire department under his stewardship.

He was also known to try to get everything he could out of the apparatus the department had, which I’m sure made the mayor and aldermen of the time very happy.

On the fireground he led operations for hundreds of fire calls both large and small.

Some of these fires longtime residents may remember include the WLFH studio, the Ann Street Market (now the Ann Street Deli), Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church on Furnace Street and of course the biggest fire he faced as chief was the Little Falls High School fire on Jan. 10, 1976.

An often overlooked aspect of Chief Munger’s career was the improvements made in the city’s ambulance service under his watch.

Prior to Munger becoming chief, the ambulance was basically a ride to the hospital. Sometimes a doctor would ride into the hospital, but the firemen didn’t have much to do with patient care.

In 1969, firefighters Mike Izzo, James Staffo and Tony Federico took the advanced first aid course. By 1975, twelve members of the department were certified EMTs and five more would follow in 1982. Not long after this, Eric Loucks and Les Congdon would become the fire department’s first advanced EMTs with the ability to do EKG’s, IV’s and give medications.

By the time Chief Munger retired, the Little Falls Ambulance was vastly improved.

Chief Munger’s influence in the fire service was not limited to the city of Little Falls. On a county level, he served on the Herkimer County Fire Advisory Board for over 14 years. He was also President of the Herkimer County Fire Chiefs Association in 1980 and 1981 along with serving on the Herkimer County Arson Task Force. Munger was also a member of the International Association of Fire Investigators and a charter member of the New York State chapter of that organization.

I once had the pleasure of interviewing the former chief about his career. One fire service achievement he was particularly proud of was being elected to the Board of Directors of the New York State Association of Fire Chiefs in June of 1981.

Munger’s last day as chief of the Little Falls Fire Department was March 18, 1983. Two months later, on May 21, a retirement party was held at the DeCarlo-Staffo Post in his honor. Over 300 people attended, including most of his family.

He received many well-deserved accolades that night from neighboring fire departments, Little Falls Mayor Ted Wind and New York State Assemblyman Anthony Casale. In his usual humble fashion, Munger gave credit for his successful career to everyone he had worked with through the years.

For most people, once you retire your career is over and you ride off into the sunset. Munger, however, was not most people.

He would continue to serve in the LFFD as a call man, even becoming president of the Call Fireman’s Association. In January 2000, at the Herkimer County Fire Chiefs’ annual dinner in Dolgeville, Munger was honored once again. This time it was in recognition of his fifty years in the fire service.

A large crowd, including several of the men who had served under him, were entertained by his recollections and jokes — which he was always fond of telling.

Chief Alfred Munger died on September 11, 2014, at the age of 95.

A true legend, he was a member of the Call Firemen’s Association right up until the day of his passing. His loss saddened people throughout the Mohawk Valley and beyond as he was a well-known and well-liked man.

Scott Kinville is a Little Falls fireman and a member of the Little Falls Historical Society.

This Writing Series was first published on the Times Telegram on June 24, 2020.

From Fairfield, NY to the Oregon Trail By Angela Harris

In Fairfield, on Hardscrabble Road near state Route 29 in Herkimer County, stands a monument commemorating 100 years since the 1802 founding of the Fairfield Academy. For twenty-eight years, the academy also was the home of College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of New York.

Between 1812 and 1840, 3123 students attended classes. Of those, 609 graduated. Many of these doctors developed impressive reputations in medicine but one of the most notable graduates, Marcus Whitman, made his name as a missionary and visionary.

Whitman enrolled at age 23 after failing to gain his family’s support for attending a seminary. Undeterred, Whitman applied to the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions (the ABCFM), one of the first Christian missionary organizations in the United States, upon completing his medical studies.

At the time, the ACCFM was evaluating The Oregon Territory (now Oregon and Washington) as its next missionary focus. The Mission Board approved an exploratory trip to the west for Whitman.

On Jan. 7, 1835, after his successful scouting trip, Whitman received a letter of appointment from the board. Encouraged to find a wife to share the mission, Whitman received an introduction to Narcissa Prentiss of Amity, New York.

Prentiss was an educated, middle-class young woman who also was seeking missionary work. Their courtship, brief and efficient, culminated in a wedding on Feb. 18.

The newlyweds traveled to Rushville and Ithaca, then Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and on to Pittsburgh. On March 15, 1835, they left by steamboat down the Ohio River to Cincinnati, joining another couple, Henry and Eliza Spaulding, also sponsored by the board. The couples continued together by steamboat to Chester, Illinois, then to St. Louis, Missouri, and finally to Liberty, Missouri (near current Kansas City, Missouri).

Marcus Whitman believed wagons could make the journey across the plains and mountains, so the couples left in two wagons — the first families to travel what became the Oregon Trail.

They followed the Missouri River into Nebraska, then traveled along the Platte. By June 10, the women were riding side-saddle, their transport for the rest of the journey.

Wagon travel was possible but problematic, so the missionaries abandoned one wagon. Trappers and adventurers had made the trip from the east, across the plains to the Rockies and beyond on horseback, but no European-American women had made the journey.

On July 4, Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spaulding rode across the Continental Divide, the first non-indigenous women to make that crossing. The couples split up and the Whitmans reached Fort Walla Walla, their initial destination in eastern Washington, on Sept. 1. The Whitmans settled at Waiilatpu, in Washington, and the Spauldings set up their mission in Lapwai in what is now Idaho.

The Whitman Mission evolved into a stopping point for American settlers headed to Western Oregon, but the Whitmans failed to translate their vision of salvation into the Cayuse language and culture. The Spauldings adapted more successfully, but by 1842, the board was ready to discontinue its support for both missions.

Marcus Whitman returned to the east in 1842 to plead his case to continue. He secured ongoing support of the board and talked-up the idea of increased emigration. When he turned west again after almost a year, he joined up with a wagon train of more than 120 wagons, and between 700 and 1,000 people. Known as the Great Migration, it marked, once and for all, the takeover of the Oregon Territory by Americans.

But the new settlers threatened the Cayuse culture and tensions grew. In November of 1847, more than 50 people, natives and settlers, lived at the mission. When a measles epidemic hit, Marcus Whitman was able to save all the settlers’ children while several Cayuse children died.

It was the last insult, and members of the tribe attacked the mission complex. Narcissa, Marcus and eleven others were killed. Fifty others were held hostage by the Cayuse for another month.

Driven by his call to missionary work through medicine, Marcus Whitman is remembered more for his dramatic death than for his place in opening the Northwest for emigration, a journey that started in Fairfield, New York.

Angela Harris is a member of the Little Falls Historical Society. Jeff Steele, Professor of History at Herkimer County Community College, shared his research on the Fairfield Medical Academy for this story.

This Writing Series was first published on the Times Telegram on June 10, 2020

The Battle of West Canada Creek By Louis W. Baum Jr.

There were many battles, mostly skirmishes, fought in this area during the Revolutionary War.

Inevitably, lives were lost as the British loyalists frequently trooped down from Canada with their Indian allies to raid the farms and homes of their former friends and neighbors in the upper Mohawk Valley. These raids included Andrustown (July 1778), Rheimensnyders Bush or “Yellow Church” (April 1780) and Shells Bush (August 1781). They knew the land well, for many of them had lived here for one or two generations. Many were relatives and friends of the recently deceased Sir William Johnson who had been Commissioner of Indian Affairs for North America.

The ambush was located in a ravine southeast of Kast Bridge, in the vicinity of today’s Smith Road approximately three-quarters of a mile from Shell’s Bush Road and one-half mile east of the West Canada Creek. Today, the area is open farmland.

A battle of local interest, one with a significant loss of lives on the part of the patriots, was the Battle of West Canada Creek, which occurred in September 1781.

Fort Dayton, near the confluence of the West Canada Creek and the Mohawk River and a short distance from Fort Herkimer, was a safe haven for the Palatine German farmers and the English speaking patriots. They desperately wanted to form a new union and be free of the yoke of British tyranny. It was well fortified and had a garrison of regular militia in addition to supplemental forces of rangers and irregulars many of whom were from this area.

Thirty-three-year-old Solomon Woodworth, a native of Salisbury, Connecticut, was living in Mayfield at the beginning of the war.

Enlisting as a private in 1776 in the Third Regiment of the Tryon County Militia, he had fought in many battles and advanced in rank becoming a lieutenant in Colonel Marinus Willett’s regiment on April 27, 1781. On Thursday, Sept. 6, 1781, Lt. Woodworth, a noted scouter, marched his company of 46 handpicked men and six Oneida Indians from Fort Rensselaer (present day Fort Plain) to Fort Herkimer, then on to Fort Dayton. His group was a part of Colonel Willett’s Regiment.

The following morning, Friday, Sept. 7, 1781, Woodworth and his contingent left Fort Dayton, forded the West Canada Creek and proceeded to scout for the ever-present loyalists and Indians. They soon picked up a freshly made trail on the ridge along the eastern side of the West Canada Creek. Some of the rangers suggested that a messenger be sent back to Fort Dayton asking for Captain Garrett Putnam and reinforcements. However, Lieutenant Woodworth feared the time delay for reinforcements to arrive would allow the enemy to escape.

Woodworth and his men took chase, and about three miles northeast of Fort Dayton, in a deep ravine, they spotted a lone Indian near the previous night’s fire pit. They rushed forward and fired. Woodworth yelled “Hurra men, the rascals run.” Unknown to Woodworth, they had been lured into an ambush. Lieutenant John Clement, of Colonel John Johnson’s “King’s Royal Regiment,” and about 80 Onondaga, Cayuga and Stockbridge warriors under Daiquanda, an Onondaga chief, lay hidden in the thickets. They had formed a semicircle around the anxious and unsuspecting Americans, similar to what had happened to General Nicholas Herkimer at the Battle of Oriskany in 1777.

The first volley killed Woodworth and 10 of his soldiers. The Indians then rushed forward with spears and tomahawks and the massacre was over in the matter of minutes. Of the force that had left Fort Dayton only hours earlier, 22 were dead, including two officers, one was wounded, 14 escaped back to the fort unhurt and nine were captured and taken to Canada. One Oneida Indian was wounded early in the fray and was carried back to the fort by his brethren. For the enemy, two Onondaga Indians were gravely wounded.

On the following day, Captain Putnam and his company, along with the survivors of Woodworth’s detachment, returned to the site of the ambush to perform the grim task of burying the dead. The exact location of the ambush and the burial ground is unknown. We do know that the ambush itself was located in a ravine southeast of Kast Bridge, in the vicinity of today’s Smith Road approximately three-quarters of a mile from Shell’s Bush Road and one-half mile east of the West Canada Creek. Today, the area is open farmland.

We all have heard of the Cherry Valley Massacre in 1778, where 30 non-combatants were killed, and, more locally, the Andrustown Massacre also in 1778, the Shell’s Bush Blockhouse attack in 1780 and the Grist Mill attack at Little Falls in 1782. These actions resulted in a few deaths and wounded on the part of the Americans. Seldom do we hear of the West Canada saga where 22 gave their lives.

A monument, honoring these fallen heroes, is located on Smith Road. It was erected in 1959, New York State’s Year of History, by the Herkimer County Board of Supervisors. The monument was dedicated in ceremonies conducted by the D.A.R. The plaque reads as follows:

“THIS MONUMENT

MARKS THE SITE

WHERE

LT. SOLOMON WOODWORTH

AND HIS MEN

FELL IN BATTLE

ON SEPTEMBER 7, 1781

DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR”

A note of interest: The property where the battle occurred had been in the ownership of the Smith family for seven generations, until a few years ago. Milo Smith, would not allow treasure hunters with metal detectors on his property.

By Louis W. Baum Jr. is a member of the Little Falls Historical Society.

This Writing Series was first published on the Times Telegram on May 2, 2020.

He set the bar high by DeForest Tinkler

By DeForest Tinkler

I was sitting across the desk from Dr. Arthur W. Brown, head of the Utica College English Department. It was autumn of 1958, and I was in for the orientation interview required of all freshman English majors. Dr. Brown was tall and outgoing, his presence filling his small, cramped office overflowing with books. I was surrounded and overwhelmed by knowledge, and it was only the first week of classes. He began to scan my anemically thin file when he stopped abruptly — so did my heart — looked straight at me, smiled and said with the confidence of one stating established and incontestable fact: “You had Mr. Templeman. Then you’re prepared.”

I felt like I had just been told that Clark Kent is really Superman.

Here was a university professor telling me in few and no uncertain words that my senior year high school teacher — whose hometown reputation was that of a reserved and scholarly tough grader — was known in the academic world as a teacher so good that his students who went on to college arrived ready to face its formidable realities. He was also telling me that I was fortunate to have been one of those students. I soon realized that he was right, and never forgot it.

Harold Templeman taught English at Little Falls High School for 40-plus years. From the Jazz Age to the Vietnam Era nearly 4,000 students passed through his classroom, some going to college, others into the work world, military or homemaking. What he taught us applied to all. He didn’t teach by spoon-feeding or with quick quizzes and empty exercises. He set the bar high.

English as taught by Mr. Templeman was much more than learning good vocabulary, correct grammar, composition and a tour through dusty classics. It was about seeing relationships between learning and life, that what we were really learning were perception, reasoning and expression, skills that could mean the difference between success and failure in any job, in life itself.

As many of us would discover to our advantage in another year, he conducted his classes on a college level. Speaking from a lectern, without notes, clearly in his element, he discussed the timeless parallels between the themes that drive people and events in literature and life. He showed us how to find and use information, expected us to take notes, draw conclusions and turn in assignments on time. No whining or excuses. We listened, we read and we wrote often and at length.

Mr. Templeman treated writing as an extension of speaking. Punctuation and usage weren’t random ink nits, they were judiciously used guides to given written words the meaning and cadences of speech. To illustrate he would write a sentence on the board, punctuate it two different ways and read both, producing entirely different meanings. He expected written papers to show thought and content. A “Cliffs Notes” synopsis showed little thought, empty fluff nothing. And we courted failure if any paper we turned in bore signs of that most deadly sin: numbers in the margin showing that we paid more attention to word count than content.

Whether we were writing fact, fiction, essays or exposition, Mr. Templeman taught us that while good form is essential to clear meaning, the staying power in writing is its ability to tell readers something about themselves.

While Mr. Templeman was somewhat reserved outside the classroom, the lessons he taught from his lectern became fixed standards of excellence in Little Falls educational culture, and a half century after his retirement those standards are still fresh in an original series of written narratives from the Little Falls Historical Society.

Members and friends of the society have been researching historical records, personal collections and “attic discoveries” to create an up-close and clear look at how events have shaped Little Falls and its people. These stories of life inside history have so far included three wars, labor strife, the immigrant economic boost, sports and the generation-gap world of rock and roll. They are a work in progress, a growing library that we can learn from and enjoy.

How fitting, then, that the directors of the Little Falls Historical Society have set a signature standard of excellence for this endeavor by titling it The Templeman Writing Series.

DeForest Tinkler is a member of the Little Falls Historical Society.

This Writing Series was first published on the Times Telegram on Apr 16, 2020

Additional Historical Highlights

The Kennedy mystique touches Little Falls in 1964 and 1966 by Jeffrey Gressler

by Jeffrey Gressler

“Enthusiastic Throng Greets Kennedy During Stop Here” was not the main headline in the Oct. 20, 1964, edition of The Evening Times, but it probably should have been. Looking back almost 45 years to a long ago race for a United States Senate seat affords many Little Falls residents the opportunity to reminisce about a magical point in time when their lives were briefly touched by greatness.

Today marks the 41st anniversary of a dark day in American history, for it was on June 5, 1968, that Robert F. Kennedy died. He had been assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan. This anniversary will not be forgotten, but today we instead choose to remember the life of the progressive political meteor who inspired many with his soaring rhetoric and political leadership. In all likelihood, he would have become president following the 1968 election, except for the dastardly actions of his assassin.

The series of political events that brought RFK to Little Falls on that rainy Tuesday almost a half century ago began with the 1960 presidential election. Bobby had helped engineer the election of his brother John F. Kennedy in a tight race over Republican Richard Nixon. RFK then became attorney general in his brother’s administration. November 22, 1963, marked another dark day in our history. On that fateful day JFK was assassinated in Dallas and Lyndon Johnson became president. These events are etched in the memories of all Americans old enough to remember. Most of us can even remember where we were or what we were doing when we first heard that awful news.

History tells us that there was no love lost between Johnson and Bobby and the latter was soon out as attorney general. Kennedy then decided to move from his native Massachusetts to New York state in early 1964 in order to challenge incumbent Republican Kenneth Keating for the U.S. Senate. Many Republicans labeled him a carpetbagger. Most Democrats were enthralled with the possibility of having a Kennedy as our U.S. senator. Little Falls played but a small part in his Senate campaign, but many of us can still recall the excitement and emotion that we felt that day. One witness remembers that “it was like a current of electricity ran through the crowd.” The Evening Times reported “Standing hatless in a steady drizzle, Kennedy spoke for five minutes from the rear of an open convertible in a 12 car motorcade that stopped in front of City Hall.” If we close our eyes and think back, we can still see him on that day.

Earlier in the day Kennedy had visited the town of St. Johnsville farm of Stanley Shuster where around 400 people had shown up to see him. The crowds in Little Falls were much larger as the Irish Catholic candidate was almost consumed by the throngs of youth released from school to watch history in the making. Former Little Falls Mayor Ted Wind recalls that Kennedy stopped his motorcade at the bottom of Eastern Park so that he could go over to speak to a group of St. Mary’s nuns. The Evening Times reported that “Kennedy was confronted by a sea of up-stretched hands from school children and he had to be held by another man in the car in order to avoid being pulled out. A thrilled school girl shrieked ‘I touched him! I touched him!’ with all the enthusiasm she might have shown Ringo Starr.” Little Falls did not directly experience the British invasion of the Beatles, but it did briefly experience the Kennedy mystique.

By any historic measure, 1964 was an important transitional year in American history. JFK’s New Frontier had given way to Johnson’s Great Society and his War on Poverty. Racial equality was advanced with both the Civil Rights Act and the 24 Amendment, the former outlawing institutional segregation and the latter banning the poll tax. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I have a dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial and Johnson’s ability to goad fellow southerners in Congress to “be on the right side of history” had yielded dramatic results. The nation had taken deliberate strides away from our troubled racial history.

The year 1964 was also a transition year in terms of America’s foreign policy; Cold War tensions had eased somewhat but our military involvement in Southeast Asia was soon to escalate dramatically. LBJ was able to get Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, allowing the president to send tens of thousands more American troops to Vietnam. The anti-war movement soon followed. Johnson increased troop levels from around 12,000 in 1964 to over 500,000 by 1968.
Racial tensions, Vietnam War-related societal divisions and the emerging “generation gap” all converged to tear the nation’s social and political fabric asunder by the late 1960s. RFK seemed to somehow be able to rise above such divisions. If he had lived to become president in 1969, rather than Richard Nixon, perhaps this period of our history may have been much different.

Kennedy promised in his 1964 visit that if elected he would return to Little Falls and in 1966 he kept his word and returned for a second time. The Feb. 8, 1966 evening times main headline read: “Senator Robert Kennedy Gives Views on Many Subjects in Talk before Large Crowd at High School Here.” The article was accompanied by a photo of the senator with Mayor Wind. Introduced by high school senior John Nemcek, RFK responded to a number of different questions posed by students and related that he supported both the 18 year old vote and the 21 year old drinking age. More telling of his overall political philosophy, he also said that he supported a higher minimum wage and that he did not feel that the Vietnam War could be won by military measures alone. This latter statement seemed to portent his 1968 anti-war presidential candidacy. His concluding remarks to the assembled crowd urged everyone to have greater concern for the less fortunate and that young Americans should be mindful of the need for greater public service. Soaring progressive political rhetoric indeed!

And so today we recall two remarkable days in Little Falls history, on this 41st anniversary of a dark day in American history. The June 6,1968, evening times headline stated: “Kennedy Succumbs to His Wounds – Will Be Buried Beside Brother in Arlington.” And so, within five years, four horrible political assassinations had been inflicted upon our nation. Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and then Robert F Kennedy. Bobby Kennedy, gone but not forgotten. We can close this remembrance with a quotation:

“Each time a person stands for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and injustice.” — Robert F. Kennedy, speech given in Capetown, South Africa, June 4, 1966.

Jeffrey Gressler is a lifelong Little Falls resident and a retired history teacher from Clinton Central School.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third in a series of articles to draw attention to the 2011 bicentennial of the City of Little Falls. Sponsored by the Little Falls Historical Society, any individual or group wishing to submit pieces of work for consideration of publication as part of the “Towards Our Bicentennial” series should do so by contacting either President Terry Tippin or Vice President Louie Baum at the Little Falls Historical Society at 319 S. Ann St., Little Falls, NY 13365.

How I know of Colonel John Wright Vrooman by Linda Vincent

As a child growing up in Suffern, NY, my fondest memories of visiting family are of coming to Paine’s Hollow to see my grandfather John W. Vrooman. I always thought he considered me his “favorite” granddaughter, however, I was the one who only visited a couple times a year…his other grandchildren could walk to visit him every day, of which I was very jealous. My Grandfather was named for his great-uncle Colonel John Wright Vrooman, “Colonel John” born March 28, 1844 on a farm in Paine’s Hollow. His great-great-grandmother was Delia Herkimer, sister of General Herkimer, and wife of Col. Peter Bellinger, who commanded the famous German Flatts Regiment of Tryon County at the battle of Oriskany.

I have enjoyed having some of Colonel John’s library of local and New York State history.

Every now and then I pick up one of the volumes and transport myself to an earlier time. It is a privilege to live in the Mohawk Valley so close to Paine’s Hollow, General Herkimer Home, Masonic Care Community and the local historic societies that he played such a part of. My Mom, Betty and I gave the Herkimer County Historic Society several items of clothing and personal items several years ago and the Masonic Museum in Utica has a sword owned by John W. Vrooman worn by General Herkimer. This is the time to share several items from his library with the Little Falls Historic Society so that many more may enjoy their stories.

John Wright Vrooman attended two or three terms of the Mohawk High School and also attended Little Falls Academy, teaching in the meantime in the district schools of Herkimer County. Upon receiving his formal education, Mr. Vrooman entered the law offices of Judge Ezra Graves at Herkimer, where he remained until he enlisted in the navy in 1864. He was engaged on board the “Vanderbilt” in cruising after blockade runners until the winter of 1864-65, when that steamer joined the North Atlantic Squadron, and he participated in the two battles of Fort Fisher. At the end of the Civil War he was honorably discharged, and returned to Herkimer to resume his studies in the office of Judge Graves. He was admitted to the bar in 1867 and began his practice at Herkimer. In November, 1867 he married Ann Ford, daughter of Daniel and Lany (Young) Ford of Mohawk. She was very active in her husband’s activities and they traveled extensively throughout the State. They did not have children. Ann Ford’s sister, Mary Jane Ford was married to Col. John’s older brother, Jacob in 1858.

Political career begins

His political career began when Judge Prescott appointed him clerk of the Surrogate’s Court of Herkimer County in January, 1868. He served as clerk for 10 years and in 1876 was appointed financial clerk of the State Senate. In 1877 he was chairman of the Herkimer County delegation to the Republican State Convention at Rochester and here he was made a member of the State Committee and served for 10 years. Mr. Vrooman was appointed secretary to the Republican State Committee, a position he held for eight years. In 1889, he was urged to head the Republican ticket but declined. In September, 1891, he allowed his name to be put on the Republican State ticket and he was unanimously nominated for lieutenant governor. Although the ticket was defeated, Mr. Vrooman ran ahead in nearly every locality, and in the aggregate about 16,000 votes. In 1892 and 1900 he was Presidential Elector on the Republican ticket for NYS.

Returning to Herkimer he became Vice-President and manager of the Herkimer Bank which later became the Herkimer National Bank for four years. At that time he went to New York in the insurance business first with the Mutual Reserve and later with Provident Savings Life Assurance Society. After spending eighteen years in the insurance field, Colonel Vrooman resigned to give his attention to the real estate and investments in New York City and Herkimer.

John Wright Vrooman had a long and distinguished Masonic career.

He was a member of the Herkimer Lodge, No. 423, which he joined immediately after returning from Civil War service, when only twenty-one. He was Master of that lodge for three years. He was Senior Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of New York under five Grand Masters, was Junior Grand Warden two years, Senior Grand Warden two years, Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of New York three years, at the end of which time he declined reelection. In all the elections by some eight hundred representatives of the Grand Lodge there was never a vote cast against him and there was never a candidate named against him. During his service to the Grand Lodge he traveled extensively in this State, assisting to raise the money and pay off the $700,000 dept of the Grand Lodge. As Grand Master he purchased the one hundred and sixty acres of land just east of Utica and laid the corner-stone for the Masonic Home, May 21, 1891.

In recognition of Colonel Vrooman’s efforts, the board of trustees, Utica Masonic Home, designated a new building erected just east of the home proper as the John W. Vrooman Memorial. The corner-stone of the memorial was laid October 8, 1927 by the Grand Master. The building no longer stands.

His obituary in the New York Times noted that at the age of 86 he was the oldest past Grand Master of the Masons of New York State. He had been an active member of the NYS Historical Society and several other regional historical and civic societies.

LF Historical Society, SUNY Oneonta collaborate on project

LITTLE FALLS — Little Falls’ rich history — the Erie Canal, immigration, industrialization — has provided the backdrop for a project that will help students explore and learn more about the city.

Erik Stengler, assistant professor of science museum studies for SUNY Oneonta’s Cooperstown Graduate Program, said the project is for his second-year graduate students, who will study Little Falls’ industrial history from 1790 to 1960 to fulfill the requirements of the program’s Science of Cabinet Curiosities course.

“It could be a capstone project,” he said.

Stengler, who lives in Cooperstown, stayed in Little Falls for a short time over the summer when he got to know the Little Falls Historical Society and those who run it.

″[Little Falls] is a very good example of history and science and how they are intertwined,” he said.

The final outcome will be an exhibition that will bring all of the student’s objects together into a book that will collectively communicate their significance. It’s anticipated that each student will contribute about 10 pages to the book.

“They will get a chance to take an object and put into practice what they’ve learned,” said Stengler.

The historical society welcomed the students to do their research.

“We see it as an application of our mission,” said Jeff Gressler, historical society president. “To preserve and to educate.”

Students visited the historical society in January to find an artifact to study.

Stengler and his students gathered at the historical society on March 3 to meet with its members and tour some of the sites in-and-around the Little Falls area. This included stops at Canal Place, Lock 17, the 1940 Gulf Curve crash monument, the Italian Oven and the Women’s Christian Association.

The students will present their findings Wednesday, April 29, at the WCA on Garden Street.

Among the objects that were selected were a piece of the train engine involved with the 1940 train wreck, a Bartlett print of the Erie Canal and one student decided to focus directly on the he Old Bank building, where the historical society is located.

Massacre at the Little Falls Gristmill by Louis Baum

Little Falls has had its share of catastrophes.

Foremost, of course, is the 1940 Gulf Curve train wreck that resulted in 33 fatalities and well over 100 injuries. Then there was the 1896 explosion of the pleasure steamboat the Hon. Titus Sheard on its way to Taylor Driving Park one mile west of the city. Twelve lives were lost. Almost forgotten today is the massacre at the Petrie gristmill in 1782.

The Revolutionary War had “unofficially” ended the year before in October 1781 with the British defeat at the Battle of Yorktown.

However, the Treaty of Paris, officially ending the war, was not signed by emissaries of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States until September 1783. Between these events, when for all intents and purposes the was over, hostilities in the upper Mohawk Valley continued unabated.

When the war began in 1775, the loyalties of the Anglican British settlers in this area were evenly divided between loyalty to the Crown and the demand for independence, freedom and the formation of a new country. It is open to conjecture if this would have been the case had Sir William Johnson, British Superintendent for Indian Affairs in North America, had not died in 1774. While he was alive, a majority of the Mohawk Valley inhabitants thought well of him, however, this was not the case with son John Johnson. He was disliked, despised and not trusted by many of the Anglicans and almost of the Palatine-Germans. The Palatines were farmers and not village dwellers. With divided loyalties, families were split apart as well chronicled by Jeff Gressler in his article “Neighbor Against Neighbor.” It was father against son, brother against brother, cousin against cousin. Most of the settlers in our area — the Sons of Liberty and the Palatine Germans — were in favor of a new found freedom and country.

Early in the conflict, most Loyalists were driven from the area and resettled to Canada in the vicinity of Kingston, Ontario. Others moved to Niagara Falls. This exile did not prevent some of them from frequently returning to the valley with their Iroquois allies, mostly Mohawks and Senecas under Joseph Brant, along with British regulars and Hessian mercenaries, to burn and ravish. Most settlers lived in constant terror of Loyalist and Indian raids. The massacres of men, women and children at Cherry valley, Wyoming and Andrustown live in infamy.

The name of Loyalist Walter Butler was synonymous with terror, death and plundering. The villain in the well-known novel and movie “Drums along the Mohawk” by Walter Edmunds is patterned after Butler. This area began to be known as the Bloody Mohawk. This sets the stage for our tale.

The Mohawk Valley was considered the bread basket of the colonies during the American Revolution because of its fertile soil and the skill and hard work of the Palatine German farmers. Wheat and other grains could be grown in abundance, but it had to be ground to flour to become a foodstuff.

The gristmill in Little Falls, built between 1722 and 1725 by Johan Joost Petrie, was one of the very first mills along the Mohawk River.

It was located on a site near the confluence of Furnace Creek and the Mohawk River, in the general area of the powerhouse on West Mill Street once owned by Forbes Whiteside. At that time there was a long island in the river, and Furnace Creek emptied into the channel just north of the island. It should be noted that in the history of Little Falls, the outlet of Furnace Creek has been moved three times. The Petrie gristmill was the first “industry” in Little Falls.

With the destruction of mills in German Flatts in 1781 and 1782, the gristmill at Little Falls was one of the few remaining near the end of the war. It was an important source of much needed wheat to feed Washington’s Army. Live taverns, gristmills were gathering places in the sparsely settled upper Mohawk Valley.

On a warm, early summer evening in June 1782, more than 20 people had thronged together in the log gristmill. Included were the two millers, Gresham Skinner and Frank Cox, the owners of the gristmill, Jacob and Daniel Petrie, both descendants of Johan Joost Petrie, and eight farmers who had brought their grain to be ground: Peter Wooleaver, Christian Edick, Frederick Getman, Mark Rasback, John Rasback, Thomas Shoemaker, Lawrence Hatter and Peter Orendorf. Guarding the mill were seven militia men under Captain McGregor. Also at the mill were an unknown number of women and children who had accompanied the farmers, most likely their wives and offspring.

Unknown to the occupants of the mill, a large war party of nearly 300 Loyalists and Iroquois Indians surrounded the mill hell bent on revenge.

They had bypassed Fort Herkimer when they misinterpreted a noisy wedding party as being a large garrison of militia. They moved on the wagon path to the Little Falls gristmill a few miles further east. The Tories must have been former residents of the area as they called out the mill occupants by name to surrender and save their lives. Surrender was not on the mind of the patriots! Flaming arrows from the Indians set the log building on fire and the overwhelming enemy force quickly forced the brave patriots, most of whom were unarmed, into submission.

Skinner and Cox, being intimately familiar with the layout of the gristmill, hid under the water wheel and escaped. Getman was discovered hiding in the water raceway and was captured. Wooleaver was able to make his escape and proceeded to Fort Dayton near Herkimer to sound an alarm. Daniel Petrie and several of the militia and farmers were killed in the attack. The others, including the women and children, become captives and were marched off to Canada. Most of them returned to the valley one hostilities ended.

Daniel Petrie met a particularly gruesome death. During the battle, he repeatedly discharged his firearm and fought with the butt end of his musket until being subdued. After being overpowered, he was scalped, bound on the rocks in the Mohawk River and tortured to death by arrows, tomahawks and scalping knives. It was reported that soldiers from Fort Dayton buried the bodies of Daniel Petrie and the other brave gristmill defenders at the scene of the conflict. This skirmish, right here in our backyard, in 1782 — nearly 237 years ago — was one of the last battles or armed conflicts of the Revolutionary War.

In July 1783, nearly a year after the attack, Gen. George Washington made a tour of the Mohawk Valley. On July 26, he stopped at the home of Gen. Nicholas Herkimer to thank the valley residents for their stellar efforts and many sacrifices made during the War for Independence.

To commemorate the noteworthy even of the attack on the gristmill in Little Falls, the Little Falls Historical Society has committed to putting a historical marker in the general vicinity where we believe the gristmill massacre occurred.

Louis Baum is a member of the Little Falls Historical Society.

Little Falls to Rockton to Little Falls By Pat Frezza-Gressler

How is it that Little Falls residents, when asked from where we hail, answer Little Falls and not Rockton? And how did our forefathers use their First Amendment rights to make that happen? Not sure? Read on.

Most Little Falls residents are familiar with the name Rockton and some know that Little Falls was officially known as Rockton at some point in our past. The purpose of this article is to examine the historic process and events that led our 1850′s era ancestors to decide to change our village name to Rockton and then back to Little Falls while also examining how their First Amendment rights were used in this process.

The catalyst for this reexamination was the discovery of an important 1851 document central to our community identity that emerged from the Little Falls Historical Society Museum’s archives a few months back. This pre-Civil War 500 plus signature petition is part of a 2019 museum exhibit which will be discussed later in this work.

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The First Amendment’s protection of free speech and free press and the right of citizens to petition their government “for the redress of grievances” all played crucial parts in this name change history.

How was it that our village government decided to change our name from Little Falls to Rockton and then back to Little Falls again in two short years? A Feb. 28, 1850, Mohawk Valley Courier newspaper article expressed a sentiment that was apparently shared by other Little Falls residents at that time.

This article’s author, identified only as “Q,” made the case for the Little Falls to Rockton name change. This effort coincided with the creation of an updated village charter, an act that required New York State Legislature approval. “Q” presented two major arguments. First was that the name Little Falls had outlived its usefulness. “Q” stated that the historical purpose of the name was accurate and useful geographically as it was traditionally meant to distinguish the major falls or “carrying places” on the Mohawk River. Cohoes, 70 miles to the east of Little Falls, was known as the “great falls” in comparison to our smaller falls.

Secondly, “Q” reasoned that the name Little Falls gave a “diminutive” first impression of the growing prosperous town. “Q” went further by proposing the name “Rockton.” Geographical features were once again cited for that new name. The village’s Mohawk River location surrounded by rock walls would also convey a sense of steadfastness and strength and would neither “begrand” nor “belittle” the image of the village. Extensive research does not reveal how much influence “Q’s” article had or what transpired following its publication, but the charter was submitted and Rockton we became in early 1851.

Low and behold, less than a year later an effort began to return the village name to Little Falls. This effort culminated in the submission of the aforementioned petition to the state Legislature in November 1851 signed by 500 plus village residents.

It is interesting to note that the arguments to both change our name to Rockton and then back again to Little Falls cited the area’s geology. The second group of petitioners adopted a more positive view. Citing our history as a second carrying place around Mohawk River rapids, the petitioners stated that we had been known as Little Falls for over a century in both Europe and America and thus that name should be preserved.

Language from the petition itself is also of interest. Citing practical reasons, it states: “During the past year since the name was changed many of our citizens have suffered inconvenience in their business by having … their letters mis-sent to the post office at Rochester, it is believed that the same difficulty will continue so long as the village shall retain the name of Rockton.” In other words, the frustrations resulting from the use of the new name resulted in citizen inconvenience. Mail was being sent to Rochester rather than to Rockton.

This 1851 petition along with a number of other “Rockton era” artifacts are part of a new exhibit at the Little Falls Historical Society Museum. One artifact is a very rare 1850′s era puzzle map used to teach New York state county locations; Rockton, rather than Little Falls, is shown on the Herkimer County puzzle piece. Another beautifully preserved 1850′s era artifact is a framed advertisement from a Main Street tailor named J.P. Nellis stating that the business offered both draper and tailor services. The exhibit also includes an Aug. 13, 1851 copy of the Herkimer County Journal newspaper with Rockton in its byline. Collectively, these nearly 170-year old artifacts preserve a most unique part of our community history.

Other items of interest from this same era have also recently come to light. Holy Family Parish records from the 1850s contain a page listing St. Mary’s Parish priests serving in Rockton and an 1869 Village Directory lists an advertisement for “Rockton House — Thomas Flanagan — Opposite Train Depot.”

Although “Rockton” is part of our past from the 1850s, the name has endured into present times. The current Fall Hill Bead and Gem Shop is located in the building that earlier housed both Walt’s Grill and The Rockton Café. And, of course, Rockton Plaza is the prominent nine-story residential structure on Albany Street.

Furthermore, in 2007, Little Falls native Cal Courtney established two businesses connected to his funeral home business in Walton, New York. The first was a laser-engraving business named “Rockton Equipment Co., LLC” and the other was “Rockton Real Estate, LLC.” Courtney recently stated: “I used these names because I thought that it would be kind of cool to reach back to my roots.”

And so, these events of over a century and half ago have been given new life by both the museum exhibit and this article. This author extends a note of gratitude to top researchers Louie Baum and David Krutz for their assistance. Additionally, First Amendment rights and protections played a key role. “Q” used freedom of speech and the Mohawk Valley Courier used freedom of the press.

Although the previously mentioned petition may be quite different from the online petitions for various organizations and causes that we encounter and sign, the spirit and purpose remain the same. The right “to petition government for a redress of grievances” is central to a democratic society in order to make our names and wishes known to elected officials to help them faithfully fulfill their roles as representatives of “We the People.”

The spirit of confidence and citizen involvement that motivated our 1850′s era ancestors to seek a new name and identity continues to exemplify our community.

Little Falls, rock on!

Pat Frezza-Gressler is a member of the Little Falls Historical Society.

The Taylor Driving Park by David Krutz

LITTLE FALLS — There is a ghost on the south side of Little Falls. But unlike most specters, this ghost is not shy about showing itself if you know where and how to look.

From the air, follow the Mohawk River westward from Little Falls for perhaps a mile or so to a point opposite the intersection of Gun Club Road and Route 5. There on the south bank of the river, the phantom will come into focus in the form of a large, oval-shaped ring of trees. It is the shadowy vestige of the long forgotten Taylor Driving Park.

In the spring of 1891 six businessmen from Little Falls formed the Taylor Driving Park Association and capitalized it with $2,500 ($60,000 in 2016 dollars). A parcel of land about one mile to the west of Southern Avenue between the Erie Canal and the Mohawk River was eased from Earl Van Antwerp. Long known as a “playground,” this area of river flats was quite familiar to local picnickers and had been a shooting range for the Little Falls Gun Club.

Thirty men and 10 teams of horses were soon put to work. A one-half mile track was laid out and graded. A grandstand, capable of accommodating more than 400 people was built, as were a large barn, a judges’ stand, fencing and other outbuildings. In the track’s infield a dirt baseball diamond was constructed.

The Taylor Driving Park (named after the association’s president) was opened on Aug. 11, 1891 with two days of harness racing. Trotters and pacers from the area competed for purses that reached $400 ($10,000 in 2016 dollars.) On both days, the grounds were packed with race goers. While the horseflesh did not reach top class thoroughbred standards, bettors were as enthusiastic as those at a Saratoga meet.

Over the next five seasons, harness and bicycle racing entertained those with the 25 cent admission price. The local nine, the Baileys, regaled Little Falls baseball fans by squaring off against area teams. On occasion their foe was of topnotch caliber, such as The Fearless, an African-American team from Utica, or an all-female team from Ohio, the Cincinnati Red. Most games featured a home run or two, “by reason of the ball being knocked into the crowd and under the carriages where the fielders could not readily recover it.”

Every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon fans could be seen making their way to the park for a day of racing or baseball. There were three ways to reach the grounds. For those energetic enough and with shoe leather to burn a walk of a mile or so along the Erie Canal towpath was the cheap route. Or, for those with access to a horse and carriage, a dirt road which merged with Southern Avenue reached the raceway’s backstretch. But the third means, by water, was the preferred and most pleasurable choice. For this purpose, A. B. Van Gorder shuttled his steam-yacht, the Titus Sheard, every 10 minutes from Leigh’s Landing (near the present day Burke Bridge) to Taylor Park.By 1896 the Taylor Driving Park Association was in severe financial difficulty — often being unable to even pay their rent. Attendance at most events had dropped dramatically as the severe depression that hit the United States in the early 1890s, capped off by the Panic of 1896, hit home. But the final blow, the death knell of Taylor Park, can be attributed to one of the worst disasters that ever hit the Little Falls community.

June 18, 1896 was supposed to be a red-letter day in Little Falls. Elite “wheelmen” from throughout the state were in town to compete in an all-important New York State Circuit cycling race out at “Taylor.” The weather was perfect and a large crowd was anticipated. After the races a parade and other festivities had been organized.

The crew of the Titus Sheard expected it to be a busy day ferrying race goers to and from the park. Van Buren Youngs, the boat’s engineer, and Edward Tresselt, its pilot, had steam up early and had brought the Titus Sheard to Leigh’s Landing to pick up the day’s first batch of passengers. Fourteen people boarded and the boat began its short trip up the canal at a leisurely 15 miles per hour. Less than 10 minutes later, the steam-yacht slowed to discharge its passengers at the landing at Taylor Park. No one knows what went wrong next but as engineer Youngs reached down to make some adjustment on the boiler it exploded with such force that the 750-pound engine was thrown into the canal and metal shrapnel landed on the grandstand. Ten of the 16 people on the boat were killed instantly and two others would die shortly after. Horrified spectators, who had cheerfully watched the T.W. Sheard docking, now witnessed body parts littering the towpath and floating in the canal. Ghastly visions of a decapitated man and of a mangled corpse being thrown onto the deck of another boat would remain with many all the rest of their days.

The Titus Sheard disaster ended steam boat travel to the park. With this conduit of customers dried up, the Taylor Driving Park soon closed. Unable to pay hundreds of dollars in back rent the Taylor Park Association folded and the park’s buildings were sold at public auction for $125 to John Ingalls. Mr. Ingalls hoped to reopen the park but his dream never came to fruition. It is believed that soon afterwards he had the structures razed and the lumber recycled. Into the 1930s, the park was still being used for pick-up baseball and football games but even they faded away.

From ground level, no trace of Taylor Driving Park is discernible today. Numerous flood control berms and Barge Canal dredging waste, which rises 20 feet or more above grade on the park’s western edge, along with more than 100 years of Mother Nature have removed all trace of the raceway. The Erie Canal bed and towpath, along with its stone walls and bridge abutments, are still quite visible but the ghost of what was Taylor Driving Park can only be seen and imagined from above.

This article was first published May 12, 2016, in the Observer Dispatch.

Little Fall’s five state championships By Jeffrey Gressler

Between 1930 and 2019, Little Falls athletes and teams captured five New York state championships, the last one in 2001. Eighty-nine years, five championships. These five championships are front and center in a new 2019 Little Falls Historical Society Museum exhibit.

The first, and arguably greatest, of these championships was brought home by the Wilbur Crisp coached boys’ basketball team in the 1929-30 season. Following tournament victories over Syracuse Central, Oswego, Binghamton and Kenmore, the championship game was played in Syracuse’s Archbold Gymnasium where the local five emerged with a 25-9 victory over Cohoes. Sam Mucica was the team captain, leading scorer and all-state center.

Other team members were Garner Beck, Chick Bowen, Leland Clark, Daniel Delvecchio, John Fogarty, Jimmy Kane, Sam Maddaloni, Milan Paracka and George Mucica.

A seven-minute vintage home movie captures the ghost-like images of both the parade that greeted the victors at the city’s western entrance and a student and faculty assembly in Eastern Park (Ward Square) honoring the team that included a simulated jump ball being tossed in the air by Coach Crisp. Copies of this classic video are on sale at the museum.

Crisp was inducted into the New York State Coaches Hall of Fame in 1979; the Benton Hall gymnasium had been earlier dedicated to Crisp in 1968.

This state All Class championship was all-the-more remarkable in that there was no allowance for school size in the state tournament in 1929-30; schools of all sizes competed in the same tournament. Remarkable!

Fifty-two years later in 1982, the Ted Schoff coached boys’ baseball team defeated Norwood-Norfolk 4-3 in the regional final. The local nine then captured the New York State Class C-D championship on their home field at Veterans Park by defeating Bishop Coleman 2-0 in the semifinal game and then Wilson 12-5 in the championship game later that same day.

The team capped off their amazing tournament run despite not winning their league championship. The hitting stars in the semifinal and final games were Gary Mizerak, Corky Demeree and Brian Rohacek, while Joe Morrotti’s pitching heroics, including being the winning pitcher in both the semifinal and championship games, earned him tournament MVP honors.

Other team members were Scott Blumberg, Rich Bucenec, Chris Connolly, John Douglas, Matt Liddon, Bob Matus, Eric Pelli, Mike Pohleven and Mark Rose. Donny Simmonette was team batboy.

The home team dugout at Veterans Park is named for Coach Schoff and he is also a member of the Mohawk Valley Baseball Hall of Fame.

Let’s switch from the basketball hardwood and baseball diamond to the track and field oval for two individual Little Falls New York State Class C-D champions, Tess Malone and Brian Mosher. Both athletes were exceptional sprinters for the purple and white.

Malone captured the 1997 girls’ 400-meter championship in 58.03 seconds and finished third in the 200 meters in 26.00 seconds at the state championship meet in Kingston. Malone placed third in the 400 meters in 57.2 seconds and fourth in the 200 meters in 26.5 seconds in other state meets. Monica Tooley was Malone’s coach.

In 2001, Mosher won the boys’ 400-meter championship in 49.52 seconds and placed second in the 200 meters in 22.61 seconds at the state championship meet in Uniondale, Long Island. The previous year, Mosher placed second in the 400 meters in 49.01 seconds and fourth in the 100 meters in 11.39 seconds at the 2000 state championship meet in Liverpool. John Raiello was Mosher’s coach.

And in 2000, Little Falls native Brett Wehrum and German foreign exchange student Florian Andreas teamed together to capture the New York State All Class tennis partners’ championship at the U.S. Tennis Complex in Flushing on Long Island. The Dave Talaba coached partners won a straight sets (6-2 and 6-2) victory in the semi-final over a pair from Garden City, a much larger school from Long Island.

In the finals, the unseeded Wehrum and Andreas were matched against the tournament number one seeded pair from Manhhasset. The Class C Mountie tandem ground out a 6-1 and 7-6 (7-2 tiebreaker set) victory over the top seed from another much larger Long Island school.

Between 1930 and 2019, five New York State championships were brought home by some of Little Falls’ finest athletes, most competed on teams, two as partners and two as individual performers; Little Falls’ most decorated athletes and teams.

Most recently, the Sal Marchese and Tim Failing coached 2018 Little Falls girls’ soccer team almost captured the state Class C championship in Cortland, losing in the state finals to a team from Stillwater. A community takes pride.

The Little Falls Historical Society has included these outstanding athletes and teams in a new 2019 museum exhibit entitled “Little Falls Athletics.” The exhibit also honors other Little Falls athletes and teams that competed in New York state tournaments. The exhibit also has a section on St. Mary’s Academy sports teams, and another on Little Falls town and independent teams that competed in various athletic contests between 1890 and the 1950s. Vintage photos galore.

The 319 S. Ann St. Old Bank Museum is open on Tuesdays through Fridays from 1 to 4 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. There is no admission cost. Please stop by and enjoy these and other exhibits.

Jeffrey Gressler is a member of the Little Falls Historical Society.

Brave soldiers buried in Yellow Church Cemetery By Pat Stock

The Yellow Church Cemetery is about two and one-half miles north of Little Falls, on a portion of an eight-acre parcel granted by the British Crown to Palatine settlers about 1722. The four churches built there are long gone, so it is the cemetery that is the focus of this piece.

There are about 50 veterans of the War for Independence buried in Yellow Church Cemetery. A monument erected in September 1926 by their descendants names and commemorates those brave and hardy soldiers as not all have an existing headstone.

Listed here are Pickerts, Vanslykes, Kellers, Petries, Windeckers, Louckses, Feeters, Bellingers, Kaughmans, Keysers, Nellises and Starings among others.

In the 1730s, the area around the cemetery was called Rheimensnyder’s Bush. It was a fairly successful community and had a gristmill, a few log homes, farms, a blockhouse and a church built by second generation German Palatines.

The sturdy Germans living there were ready to defend the Continental Congress’ July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence, even though they were on the frontier. It was not an accident that these German families were given this land so as to be in a position to buffer potential Indian attacks on larger localities to the east. There was a primitive fort built by Henry Rheimensnyder to protect the all-important gristmill that was necessary to grind the community’s meal or flour.

Here are some of the stories of the veterans buried in Yellow Church Cemetery:

William Feeter is well known to many in the Mohawk Valley. The Daughters of the American Revolution chapter in Dolgeville is named in his honor as a patriot. During the Revolution, he served as a private in the colonial army and therefore was an outcast from his family. His father’s second wife’s maiden name was Serviss and was related to Sir William Johnson’s first wife, hence most of his family were Loyalists.

William was educated in his native Stone Arabia amongst Germans who disliked Sir William’s feudal ways, and who particularly disapproved of his air of importance. These Germans were in favor of casting their lots with the Continental Congress and held Committee of Safety meetings in response to the growing tensions between Tories, Indians and colonists.

In the spring of 1776, William Feeter enlisted in Captain Emmanuel DeGraff’s company and scouted the Johnstown, Canajoharie and Saratoga River areas for the enemy. This began his long service during the Revolution. He was in the ranks of Captain Abraham Yates’ force blocking Wood Creek to stymie the enemy near Fort Stanwix. He joined with Colonel Klock to fight at the Battle of Oriskany. William later escorted prisoners to Stone Arabia and Schenectady and was at Fort Herkimer when it was attacked. He helped bury the dead following the Cherry Valley massacre and helped carry needed supplies to Fort Stanwix. In 1779, he joined the Clinton-Sullivan Campaign to destroy the Indians menacing Western New York.

In November 1779 Feeter was back in Stone Arabia during the Battle of Newton where, according to family tradition, he met his younger brother Lucas who was fighting for the British. He later joined Marinus Willett’s troop, continued to scout and helped defeat Jacob Klock, a former militia officer turned Tory. During that fight, firearms were captured and once scalp was taken.

When the war ended, William Feeter fought to gain some of his Loyalist father’s land which had been confiscated when the Feeter family fled to Canada. He sold that land and purchased land just northwest of Fort Rheimensnyder. He married a Bellinger girl and hand 12 children. He led a prosperous and charitable post-war life. Feeter contributed to the building of the Octagon Church in Little Falls and pledged support to the Stone Arabia Church as well as his own Yellow Church. He enjoyed German holidays and opened his home in Little Falls to friends and family. Feeter became a colonel in the New York militia which he commanded during the War of 1812.

John Windecker is another veteran buried there. He was captured near Rheimensnyder’s Bush in 1780 when a Tory and Indian group, 60 strong, raided and burned the gristmill. John, along with six others, was taken to Canada. He returned after the war relating that the Indians treated him fairly, but the Canadians did not. The Indians taught him how to starve by pulling his belt tightly around his chest. His brother Nicholas is also buried in Yellow Church Cemetery. John Windecker was a member of the Tryon County Militia.

Lieutenant Adam Bellinger is also buried here. He started as a private and was present at the Battle of Johnstown. He also served with the Rangers and the Tryon County’s Second Regiment under Colonel Jacob Klock.

Philip Nellis, another veteran, fought and was wounded at Oriskany. He lived a short life dying at age 44.

Joseph Newman served under General George Washington while he was in Massachusetts. He was captured by Indians at Hubbleton, Vermont, and later escaped. He made his way to Manheim and joined Captain John Keyser’s company. He helped build two blockhouses and spent time scouting in Jerseyfield and Andrustown. Joseph was to be ready to serve at all times and was frequently called out for a day, a few days or a week or two. He was captured again and taken to Canada. Along the way, he ate bark and small twigs to survive. Joseph Newman was first taken to Carleton Island and then on to Niagara, where he was kept for three years before being exchanged at Saratoga. He mentioned that Henry Ritter was with him some of the time. Newman was reimbursed back pay at $6.66 a month.

There are but a few of the men buried in Yellow Church Cemetery whom we honor for their gift of liberty.

I will finish with a quote from Chancellor Haven at an Oriskany ceremony:

“The men who fought his battle were good specimens of a peculiar people. They had been sifted out of Europe by a process of natural and gracious selection. They came across the ocean — or their fathers or mothers did — not for money, but for liberty and religion. They lived in log houses, but they went to log churches and their children to log school houses. They ate from wooden dishes and were clad in homespun, but they read the Bible and governed themselves. They had wooden plows and used sickles instead of reaping machines, and their only sewing machines were their mothers and wives and sweethearts; but these could put a music into their rural life far better than the noise of a modern machine. They were the happiest and best people on earth. Such a people fought the Battle of Oriskany — nay, the battle of freedom for all mankind.”

Pat Stock is a member of the Little Falls Historical Society.

Dr. Fred C. Sabin: His life and service by Pat Stock

We love, honor and cherish the special people in our lives, but memories fade and good people and deeds are forgotten. This year as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the United States entering the Great War, we can also acknowledge the 50th anniversary, this month, of a veteran of that war’s death, through the remembrance of his life and deeds.

Dr. Frederick Collins Sabin was a “Person Worth Knowing,” according to a newspaper article in 1957. He was born on Oct. 12, 1893 to an English father whose ancestors had landed in Massachusetts around 1641. As a 13-year old, he lost his mother, Nellie A. Lawson Fairchild Sabin, 40, to cancer and his father, Peden (Peter) James Sabin, a conductor for the railroad, was killed five years later in a train accident. Maybe it was these tragedies that provoked him into the medical profession, but his father had, as a single parent, legally appointed a brother to be a guardian for his three children, perhaps invoking a selfless caring for others in his son. This caring for others would be a major theme in Dr. Sabin’s life.

Fred C. Sabin entered medical school in Maryland. When the United States entered World War I, he asked for an exemption from the draft, but volunteered to work for the Navy at the hospital as an apprentice first class. The brown haired and blue eyed man served from Dec. 7, 1917 for 339 days, then continued in the Reserves for three years. He finished medical school, interned a year at Faxton Hospital in Utica, married Esther Chapman on Aug. 11, 1923 and immediately moved to Little Falls. Their life in Little Falls was one of selfless serving the community and tragedy.

Dr. and Mrs. Sabin became members of the Presbyterian Church, and the American Legion and Auxiliary. They had three children and lived at 23 N. Ann St., with his office in the back of the house and the entrance on Church Street.

Dr. Sabin’s concern for the community had begun almost as soon as he located here. In 1923, he was a member and officer of the Exchange Club, now known as the Civic Club, participating on its committees and promoting to the Common Council recreational facilities in the city to include playgrounds and tennis courts. The club also sponsored a third Boy Scout troop.

As a member of the Presbyterian Church he presided over the Herkimer County Older Boys Conference held in Little Falls in 1936. There were meetings and a main speaker from the New York State YMCA. One reverend spoke on “What Should Be Our Attitude on War,” another’s topic was “Citizenship That Counts” and Supreme Court Judge Abram Zoller spoke of “The Challenge of Youth.” Those were important topics in the United States as Europe seemed to be on a road to war.

As a legionnaire, he worked on committees for a feather party dinner and entertainment for the Legion members. At one time he commanded the post and was awarded a lifetime membership in 1962.

He was assigned by the Board of Charities to serve as city poor physician for $500 a year, and led a joint effort with Fire Chief Cooney and firemen to provide boxes of toys, candy and oranges for 80 needy families, including 400 children in the winter of 1935.

He was concerned about safety at schools, movie theaters and those driving on city streets. A safety drive week was held, with Dr. Sabin’s leadership, in which state police tested brakes and local police concentrated on drivers obeying traffic devices. Three years later at a Civic Club meeting, Dr. Sabin questioned the effectiveness of police in the enforcement of the traffic laws. He was supported by Dr. Tanzer about the 90-minute parking law on Main Street not being enforced, but Mr. Ernest Sheldon, at an open meeting discussing civic issues, defended the police and said more one-way streets might help solve some problems.

Tragedy came again to Dr. Sabin when his wife Esther, a member of the Rock City Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star Mothers’ Club, and having just completed her presidency of the Church Street School PTA, suffered a cerebral embolism on the evening of May 13, 1936. She had complained of a headache previously and her husband had administered a sedative. She was rushed to the hospital where Dr. Vickers directed crews from the Utica Gas and Electric company through the night, using their inhalator and pulmotor to ventilate her but to no avail. At age 40, she too, left three young children, Fred Chapman Jr., and five-year old twins, Robert and Marion. Dr. Sabin married Gertrude Moynihan, a nurse, in 1937.

Dr. Sabin added to his civic responsibilities by becoming one of four county coroners. He dealt with many tragedies while verifying deaths. There were attempted suicides with jack knives and guns, successful love lost suicides by poison, drownings in East Canada Creek and young drivers or passengers killed because a tire blew and the car hit a tree. He even examined a man from Kentucky, as a vagrant picked up by the police and taken into custody, who claimed to have kidnapped the Lindbergh baby. Mr. Harden Lavender was committed to Marcy State Hospital for 30 days on questionable sanity.

He examined a watchman who was killed with a blunt object while working at Gilbert’s Knitting Mill, but no perpetrator was ever found. When Senator Patri, 61, died suddenly alone in his home in Dolgeville, Coroner Sabin ruled it was due to Angina Pectoris. He, also, recommended the elimination of the Gulf Curve in his report on the train tragedy of 1940.

In 1941, Dr. Sabin investigated bones discovered in a gravel bed in the town of Danube. He determined that they were at least 200 years old and belonged to an Indian child. That same year he attempted to remove an atomizer top from an asthmatic man who had accidentally inhaled it during an attack. The man was sent to Utica and then Temple Hospital in Philadelphia where a bronchoscope was located and the top was successfully removed from the lung.

During World War II, Dr. Sabin led the county Emergency Medical Committee which allotted supplies of blood plasma to the hospitals then in Ilion, Herkimer and Little Falls. There was much concern in Dolgeville about medical services after Dr. H.F. Buckbee and Dr. Max Leventhal enlisted in the service. The mayor, Raymond Mang, reached out to Dr. Sabin and the County Medical Society for assistance for remedies and to calm the residents. He also served as the medical director of the Herkimer County Draft Board.

After the War, Dr. Sabin, in an attempt to improve conditions for veterans, attended the statewide Medical Advisory Committee that approved a study of the water regime at the newly established veterans’ facility at Saratoga Spa.

Always civic minded, he was in a Memorial Day Parade that honored the last two surviving Civil War veterans in the city, Victor Adams Sr. and Martin P. Durney.

The county cut back to two coroners in 1946, Dr. Sabin then took the county physicians’ job. They were paid $1,200 a year and $.08 a mile for traveling expenses. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he served as city and town of Danube health officer.

Throughout his life, he attended several family reunions in Turin and held one at his camp three miles north of the city. He and his first wife had built a log cabin on what is now Sabin Road. Many Little Falls families and children were able to enjoy the outdoors and campfires there.

An interest in American history led to his involvement in the preservation of an Erie Canal site in Fort Hunter and in being placed on the board of Herkimer Home by the governor of the state.

In furtherance of this interest, in 1951, Dr. Sabin and his second wife, Gertrude, had begun to collect antique industrial equipment, medical and other antiques found in barns and attics from the Mohawk Valley and New England. They gathered these items, preserving history, and shared with friends and historians. They had a country store, a 19th century complete doctor’s office, a dress shop and barn and blacksmith tools.

Dr. Sabin died unexpectedly on June 7, 1967 at Little Falls Hospital after being stricken at his summer home “Three Acres.” He is buried in the Church Street Cemetery in Little Falls.

After his death, his wife felt she could not continue the upkeep of the buildings and artifacts. A huge auction held over several days was arranged. Some items went to collectors and some to museums.

Dr. Sabin had helped many people of all ages, served his community and nation with honor and dignity, while traversing tragedy during his lifetime. A person well worth knowing and remembering.

This Writing Series was first published by Pat Stock in the Times Telegram on September 25, 2017.

The Case for a Mohawk Valley Patriots Day by Jeff Gressler

Presidents Day in February, Memorial Day in May, Independence Day in July and Veterans Day in November are four American holidays paying unique tribute to democracy, freedom and liberty. These are all national holidays, and well they should be. A uniquely New England regional holiday is celebrated each year on the third Monday in April. This holiday is Patriots Day and it commemorates the April 19, 1775 beginning of the Revolutionary War when American Minute Men and British troops skirmished at Lexington and Concord. Perhaps we here in the Mohawk Valley have similar reasons to celebrate our local ancestors’ critical contributions to America’s success in our War for Independence.

Anyone who has attended Patriots Day activities in Boston can attest to the emotions that are raised. The viewing of the somber bagpipe-led procession as it snakes its way through the streets of Boston on its route to pay proper tribute at the graves of Revolutionary War heroes with rifle salutes is indeed a moving experience. Patriots Day also includes a number of reenactments at key Boston Revolutionary War landmark sites along its historic red line. The running of the Boston Marathon and the Red Sox home opener add to the celebratory mood.

Our local Revolutionary War era patriots may have lacked the formal education and national stage that produced the oratorical eloquence of New England’s John Adams and Pennsylvania’s Thomas Paine or of Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. But, heroes and patriots they were, our heroes and patriots. Certainly we can safely liken the courage of the Palatine Committee of Safety in drafting its May 21, 1775 Declaration of Independence-like document to the July 4, 1776 decision by our national Founding Fathers in issuing our more famous Declaration of Independence. These were our local founding fathers and they acted more than a year earlier than our national Founding Fathers!

After signing his name to the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin stated: “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” The same fate would surely have awaited the Palatine Committee of Safety signers if America had not succeeded in gaining independence from England. They were all traitors alike in the eyes of English authorities. The whole nation celebrates July 4 as Independence Day, and this is appropriate. A parallel recognition and celebration of the beginning of the spirit of independence in the Mohawk Valley is here being called for. Possible dates for consideration will be discussed near the end of this article.

Additional parallels between local and national Revolutionary War era events and people can also be drawn upon for greater regional recognition.

Once the British military evacuated Boston in March, 1776 and soon after began the occupation of New York City, the physical threat to New England colonists generally vanished. The physical safety of Mohawk Valley residents was threatened for a far greater length of time than other regions of Colonial America, with the possible exception of New York City itself. The Walter Butler and Joseph Brant led tory and Indian raids in our area went on almost as long as the Revolutionary War itself. Perhaps the most notorious of these actions were the September 17, 1778 German Flatts Raid and the November 11, 1778 Cherry Valley Massacre. Death and destruction were a constant presence in patriot life. Our ancestors lived on the western frontier of the Revolutionary War. The threat to local safety really did not lessen until the October 30, 1781 death of Walter Butler on the banks of the West Canada Creek. Some historians refer to this encounter as the last battle of the Revolutionary War. The June, 1782 tory and Indian raid that destroyed the Little Falls gristmill occurred some eight months after Cornwallis had surrendered British forces to George Washington at Yorktown. Indeed, death and destruction were pervasive in the Mohawk Valley for a long period during our quest for independence.

During this extended period, no Mohawk Valley patriot felt safe from tory reprisal. The “Sunshine Patriot” that Thomas Paine condemned in his “The American Crisis,” read to George Washington’s beleaguered and deserting troops at Valley Forge, would seem an appropriate reference. There were few “Sunshine Patriots” remaining in the Mohawk Valley during this time. Incredible courage was exhibited by the individuals and families who took refuge at Fort Herkimer, Fort Dayton and Fort Klock as the war dragged on. Our ancestors were killed, scalped, and generally brutalized for a longer period of time than any other Americans during the Revolution. Perhaps we need to better recognize and celebrate this courage and these contributions. How better to educate ourselves about our collective heritage and to pass this appreciation along to our children than by having more formal annual recognition of these frontier patriots?

It does not require a great leap of imagination to compare Adam Helmer’s heroic run to warn the residents of German Flatts of the approach of 450 tories and Indians with Paul Revere’s more famous Midnight Ride warning the residents of Lexington and Concord of the approach of British forces. Helmer saved dozens of Mohawk Valley residents from brutal deaths.

As we visit historic cemeteries at Fort Herkimer, General Herkimer Home, Yellow Church Road and elsewhere, the emotional grasp of history is powerful. We need to realize that as we stand before the graves of Nicholas Herkimer and Jacob Klock and before the family plots of the Bellingers and the Snells that we are, in actuality, reaching for the legacies of our local founding fathers. Their names were not Washington, Jefferson or Adams, but greater appreciation and celebration would seem to be in order.

Our area already does a great job of promoting much of our local history. Each autumn Fort Herkimer holds its living history weekend and the General Nicholas Herkimer state historic site continues to be one of the finest Revolutionary War sites in the state. Additionally, the Herkimer County Historical Society does a fine job with its ongoing efforts in celebrating our Revolutionary War era heritage. This writing is suggesting more of a focused effort on the annual celebration of a New England-like Patriots Day.

As a member of the Herkimer County Historical Society, the Little Falls Historical Society and the Salisbury Historical Society, this author would urge each of these organizations to petition our county legislature to make this declaration. Local communities and schools could have greater reason for celebration and appreciation for the crucial role that our ancestors played in the outcome of the Revolutionary War. This brings us again to the question of an appropriate date for such an annual observance.

The third Monday in April would duplicate the already existing New England holiday, but this date would seem to be too early in the season for our area. A case can be made for the third Saturday in May as a connection to the earlier discussed May 21, 1775 action of the Palatine Committee of Safety with their declaration of independence. This date would seem to compliment the last Monday in May observance of Memorial Day in that each would recognize the service of patriots and veterans. Another date to consider would be the first Saturday in August to forge a connection to the crucial August 6, 1777 Battle of Oriskany. This author would favor the May choice as it could serve to be an early kickoff to the summer season. Many area residents are away on vacation in early August, perhaps making the later date less attractive.

Boston in particular and New England in general does a wonderful job of promoting their regional significance in our nation’s founding. Saratoga also effectively promotes the critical Battle of Saratoga as part of its vacation destination appeal. Is it not time for us to rival these ranks by taking greater local pride in our own Revolutionary War legacy? Happy Patriots Day!

The Case for a Mohawk Valley Patriots Day by Jeff Gressler was published on 5-22-2010

Little Falls Historical Society Museum Exhibits

All 10 /Current Exhibits 2 /Ongoing Exhibits 1 /Past Exhibits 1 /Virtual Exhibits 7

1912 Little Falls Textile Strike

Massacre at the Little Falls Grist Mill

The Frog Fountain

Prohibition Exhibit

Rockton Exhibit

Early Base Ball in Little Falls

The Battle of West Canada Creek

Distant Drums by David Krutz

Making History Today Student Edition

Early Little Falls Buildings and Organizations

Contact Us

Little Falls Historical Society Museum
319 South Ann Street
Little Falls, NY (Get directions)

(315) 823-0643

OLD BANK BUILDING MUSEUM WILL BE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC ON A BY APPOINTMENT ONLY BASIS BEGINNING JUNE 1, 2022.

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