Little Falls Historical Society Museum Events
This day in history: September 28
1805
On this date Alexander Ellice died in Bath, England. The Ellice Estate, headed by his son Edward, an influential member of the British House of Commons, maintained a tight grip on water rights along the river at Little Falls, and other aspects of the life of the community. Ellice had acquired a valuable mill-site at Little Falls from Sir William Johnson.
1839
The first Methodist church in Little Falls, built on Third Street, was dedicated on this date by Bishop Elijah Hedding. The parish outgrew this building and built a new church in 1876. The old building became the Polish Community Association.
1968
Riverside Industrial Park, situated on 24 acres between the railroad tracks and the Mohawk River just west of Hansen Island, is being developed by the City of Little Falls.
This day in history: September 29
1895
Miss Charlotte E. Davis of Little Falls, better known as the professional aeronant of the Mohawk Valley, was married in Johnstown to Professor George J. Bush, also a professional aeronant, from Blissfield Michigan.
This day in history: September 30
1887
Professor William Rullison, the great trapeze aeronaut, is visiting his native Little Falls, after a successful Rockaway Beach tour with T. S. Baldwin, the parachute jumper. Rullison has made over 900 ascensions on the flying bar, hanging by his toes.
This day in history: October 1
1875
The Merchants’ and Farmers Bank is doing business at the Banking House on Main Street in Little Falls. Banking hours included Saturday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00 P.M.
1883
Large crowds lined up to purchase tickets for the first passenger train to leave Little Falls on the West Shore Railroad. The West Shore depot was later called “South Little Falls.”
1895
D. H. Burrell & Company have recently imported the ”Thistle Mechanical Milking Machine” from Scotland for their operation on their Hilltop farm. The machine at the Burrell farm milks ten cows at once, averaging one cow per minute, with favorable results.
1958
The Salada-Shirriff-Horsey Company of Boston, Mass., Plant City, Fla., and Toronto, Canada, will acquire the “Junket” Brand Foods Division of Chr. Hansen’s Laboratory, Inc. of Little Falls, as of this date.
1974
The newly built quarters for the New York State Employment Service opened today at 690 East Main Street, the site of the former Knights of Columbus Home which had been razed.
A Sun Shower Without End by Ray Lenarcic
/by Little Falls Historical Society MuseumWhile driving down Flint Avenue in my hometown of Little Falls the other day, I happened to look to my right and for no apparent reason, my mind flashed back to the 1950’s. I recalled in vivid detail searching for diamonds on a rocky hillside behind the Ave with my buddy Rog Kopp.
Patriots Day Honors Those Who Were Not Sunshine Patriots by Jeffrey Gressler
/by Little Falls Historical Society Museum“These are the times that try men’s souls.” So begins Thomas Paine’s December 23, 1776 epic treatise “The Sunshine Patriot,” written at perhaps the darkest point of the American Revolution, George Washington’s half-starving, dis-spirited troops were in their Valley Forge winter quarters.
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 […]