Little Falls Historical Society Museum Events
This day in history: April 12
1847
The Benton House, on the site of the future Hotel Snyder, opened for business to the public. The owner was Hon. Nathaniel Benton. The Post Office was also located there.
1866
An effort is being made locally to raise funds to send an agent to England to report upon the process of manufacturing and marketing cheese, the probable effect of the cattle plague, and other matters pertaining to the dairying interests in the state.
1877
Louis Ransom, the inventor of the steam street cars which are so successful in Philadelphia, is a native of Little Falls.
1941
An explosion in the cellar of the Murray gas station and home at the corner of Ward and East Main Streets demolished the building. William Murray was seriously hurt and later died from his injuries. It was thought that a buildup of gas fumes in the cellar caused the explosion.
1965
A wrecking crane was brought in to begin razing old structures in the “Downtown Urban Renewal” project. The first buildings to go will be the former Jay Smith Garage and the Grange Store at the corner of Albany and Second streets.
1972
Demolition is nearing completion on the First Presbyterian Church at the corner of Jackson and Lansing streets.
This day in history: April 13
1824
Gresham Skinner, a native of Connecticut, died in the Town of Columbia (south of Ilion) at age 76. Mr. Skinner was the miller at the Little Falls gristmill at the time of the June 1782 attack by Royalists and Indians. He escaped by hiding under the water wheel.
1904
The people of Little Falls were sorry and shocked to learn of the death today of the Hon. Titus Sheard who was well known throughout the entire state. As a young boy, he worked in the mills in Yorkshire, England, and came to the United States in 1856. He saved his money for school, became a teacher and eventually was the owner of several large mills in Little Falls.
This day in history: April 14
1795
A complete inventory of the property at the little falls under the management of John Porteous listed twelve houses, and also a bark mill, smith shop, currier’s shop, joiner shop, cooper’s shop, grist mill, fulling mill, saw mill, in addition to his dwelling and store. These buildings represented the beginning of the village of Little Falls.
1902
John R. Taylor, proprietor of a local hardware store, inaugurated a movement to form a retail hardware dealers association in New York State.
1917
A great loyalty demonstration was held with two thousand men, young and old alike, parading prior to the patriotic meeting in the City theatre. Rev. C.B. Papa of Utica spoke in Italian and Steve Zeman in Slovak.
This day in history: April 15
1915
Workman began tearing down the Wheeler – Harding block at the northeast corner of Main and Ann streets to make way for the new Burrell building.
Sometimes Distributing Vaccines Easier Said Than Done by Schuyler Van Horn
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumWith all the buzz about COVID-19 vaccines, it brought back memories of vaccines administered when I was in Vietnam in 1971-72. I was not a Medic but an intelligence officer stationed in a remote place named An Loc. Not far from the Cambodian border, 70 miles north of Saigon, straddling Route 13 (Thunder Road), I was one of 32 Americans in MACV advisor team 47, next to 2,000 ARVN (Army of the Republic of Viet Nam).
Hector Allen by David Krutz
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumTo anyone who walked the halls of Little Falls High School in the 1960’s, 70’s, 80’s and even into the 1990’s Hector Allen was a familiar and respected figure.
Hector taught “Social Studies” – New York State, United States and World History – at LFHS for 34 years.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumUsing a treasure trove at the Little Falls Historical Society Museum, Louie Baum toiled for months creating an over 200-page document to chronicle the historic past of Little Falls.
OLD BANK BUILDING REACHES A MILESTONE
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumPhoto submitted – National Herkimer County Bank and Presbyterian Church in the background – (Kinney Plaza) circa 1860. by Pat Frezza-Gressler, member of the Little Falls Historical Society 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 AND SUNY ONEONTA COLLABORATION
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumThis article is more about the future than the past. Although 2020 will be remembered for the succession of crises that changed our lives in many ways, for the members of the Little Falls Historical Society, a group of six students from SUNY Oneonta’s Cooperstown Graduate Program of Museum Studies and their professor, this year […]
Expatriate hopes generosity will inspire others
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumLittle Falls native Blaise Carrig (LFHS class of 1969) and his wife Leslie donated $50,000 earlier this year to six Little Falls non-profit organizations. The Carrigs responded to a series of questions for this article from their home in Longmont, Colorado. “We make a living by what we get but we make a life by […]
HISTORICAL SOCIETY PROJECT SOLICITING COVID-19 RELATED SUBMISSIONS
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumThe Little Falls Historical Society has added a Making History Today repository page to our website This new page is for the purpose of collecting residents’ input and creating a body of work that will help future generations better understand how the greater Little Falls community has been impacted by the pandemic. Society members, local […]