Little Falls Historical Society Museum Events
This day in history: April 19
1940
At 11:33 pm, the New York Central Lake Shore Limited, speeding to make up for lost time, crashed at the sharp Gulf Curve in Little Falls killing 31 and injuring over 100 others. The massive pileup taxed the resources of the local hospital and community, however they responded in a magnificent and heroic manner to the disaster.
1958
At the former LiFalco Manufacturing plant on East Mill Street, a small group of local entrepreneurs are building canoes out of a new material, fiberglass. All of the canoes are being taken by Horrocks & Ibbotson Company of Utica, a distributor of sporting goods. Neil Baum is president, Ed Cigale vice-president, and Ed Gregorka secretary-treasure.
This day in history: April 20
1831
A group of Albany men, purchased the Ellice’s holdings, and held a meeting at the McKinster House to dispose of the lots and property.
1883
It has been decided to build a footbridge on the east side of the Mohawk River bridge. This will accommodate foot passers who currently risk being knocked off should a runaway team happen along, or have to wade through slush and mud during spring and autumn.
The Board of Health should compel the removal of all slaughter houses to outside the corporate limits, at least during the summer months. No one wants to be near the numerous establishments on Mill Street and vicinity that are close to our mills and many dwellings. Windows had to be closed on account of the nauseating odors emanating from them.
1887
There will be a balloon ascension tonight at 8 o’clock on Main Street.
1918
As a part of the Liberty Loan campaign, a seven foot diameter ball is being rolled from Buffalo to New York City. The jouncing sphere was pushed through Little Falls by Boy Scouts ahead of a five division parade with twenty five hundred people in line including fifteen hundred union members. After a speech by Mayor Zoller, the scouts rolled the ball to East Creek.
1940
The recently remodeled and redecorated Sokol Hall on Flint Avenue will host a big gymnastic meet and exhibition today with venues at both the Y.M.C.A. and the hall. Teams from Rochester, Gloversville, Binghamton, Johnstown, and Little Falls will be in competition.
From the Cooney Archives
Mysteries of the Bowie Knife by Ann Schuyler
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumI sat by the window on the night of September 29th watching the last of four Super Full Moons when random memories ran through my mind.
AN ELEPHANT NAMED BIMBO AND A FUNERAL by Darlene Smith
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumMost people usually don’t have an elephant attend a family member’s funeral, but then most other families didn’t have a grandfather who loved the circus the way Milo Smith did.
CITY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY CONTINUE EFFORTS TO RECOGNIZE AFRICAN AMERICAN BURIAL GROUND
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumIt all began sometime in the early-2000s in the mind and heart of deceased former City Historian Edwin Vogt.
“Bellcamp” The Magician by Ann E. Schuyler
/by Little Falls Historical Society Museum“Uncle Archie, can you make me disappear?” I asked. “Yes,” he said, “Go in the other room.” I was expecting something like levitation.
My First and Last Train Rides by Ann Eysaman Schuyler
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumIn 1944 I took my first train ride – all the way to Utica, NY. Having lived in Little Falls all my life, some of it on West Main Street at the foot of Glen Avenue, I knew about the railroad.
LOCAL AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY REFLECTED STATE AND NATIONAL EVENTS
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumThe primary purpose of this piece of writing is to chronicle a history of African American presence in Little Falls from the time of slavery up to the 2015 dedication of a monument in Little Falls Church Street Cemetery recognizing what was once known as the “Colored Burial Ground.”
The Underground Railroad In And Around Little Falls
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumThe Underground Railroad (URR) was a loosely organized network of people, (men and women, African American and white,) dedicated to helping people escape from bondage in the slave-holding states of the South to freedom in the antislavery states of the North and ultimately to Canada in the period before the Civil War.