Little Falls Historical Society Museum Events
This day in history: September 9
1873
The Modoc base ball club of Canajoharie came to Little Falls to play the local “White Stockings” and were “scalped” by a score of 53 to 13. Williams and Selcer each scored 10 runs for the locals.
1917
The banner read – “A war to end wars!” That’s what the first 14 young men from Little Falls thought as they were sworn into the service of the nation and departed for army training camps. They would join millions of humans across the seas locked in a death grip with their foes in World War I.
1987
Work crews tearing up Garden Street between Waverley Place and Salisbury Street unearthed wooden water pipes from a water delivery system that had been discontinued from service over 100 years ago. Several years ago, similar wooden pipes were found during excavation for Shopper’s Square.
This day in history: September 10
1886
The parochial school connected with St. Mary’s church opened with nearly 300 pupils, with their instructions being furnished by four lay teachers. The average for each teacher is too large for the best results, but no more than for Union schools. The large number in students is due in part to child labor laws in our mills.
1889
The new bell for the school house on Church street, weighs 387 pounds. It can be heard nearly anywhere in the village.
1908
The old Gem Theatre in the Beniens block has been closed and the new Gem theatre, with a capacity of 425 on the ground floor and first balcony, has been opened. The natty little new playhouse has been crowded at each of the three nightly performances.
This day in history: September 11
1898
Some boys playing in Foley’s gulf above German Street (Flint Avenue) found curious items in a cavity beneath a large rock. Lumps of silver and babbitt metal, hammers, kettles, ladles, and molds for casting 10, 25, 50, and one-dollar coins. The nature of the find indicated the genuine counterfeit equipment had been in the ground for a long time.
1917
The contractor building the new City Hall, George Willis Company, declared bankruptcy. James Hallinan was engaged to complete the project.
1922
The Little Falls Military Band showed cash receipts of $212.81 and disbursements of $134.41 for Pavement Dances held during the summer of 1922. Four concerts were held with 1,989 tickets being sold at 10 cents each. Popcorn and ice cream sales amounted to $13.91.
This day in history: September 12
1839
President Martin Van Buren arrived in Little Falls in a barouche drawn by four white horses to the applause and cheering of a large crowd of citizens. After a speech and festivities, Van Buren spent the evening at the Lansing residence at 22 Church Street. He left behind his red night cap which is now a treasured souvenir of the Lansing family.
1914
Before a large gathering, the cornerstone ceremony was held for the majestic Masonic Temple to be built at the corner of Prospect and Church Streets. The architect, William Neil Smith, cited the French Medieval Period as his inspiration for the structure on a hillside overlooking the beautiful Mohawk Valley.
1959
Today has been proclaimed as “Francis J. Bellamy Day” in honor of the author of our National Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, who served as a Baptist minister in Little Falls from 1879 to 1885. A Bronze tablet on a boulder was placed in the park named for him on East Gansevoort Street.
2015
Ted Wind, a lifelong Little Falls resident, and mayor of Little Falls for over 30 years and a Herkimer County Legislator for 10, years passed away. He is remembered most for helping to keep Little Falls Hospital open and a part of Bassett Healthcare, and spearheading the development of the Veterans Memorial sports complex. He was on the LFHS undefeated 1948 football team.
From the Cooney Archives
Late 19th century map of Moreland (Park).
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 […]
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 […]