It Happened Here -- In a "Cockpit" of History

In Albany in the late 1950's (and for many years before, and one and a half decades afterwards) there was a small park at the base of State Street hill, where it merged into lower Broadway. This park served as a major transportation hub in the city.  People would take a Traction Company bus to "The Plaza" and could transfer to one of a dozen or more buses going to different parts of the city, Schenectady, Troy or the suburbs. On nearby side streets were the terminals for the Adirondack Trailways Bus Company and Greyhound. Up until the first years of the 1950's, Union Station, on Broadway a block up from the Plaza provided passenger rail service. Up until a decade before that, travelers could purchase tickets at a ticket house at the end of the Plaza and board the Hudson River Dayline boats--side paddle-wheel steamers that plied the river providing overnight service to New York.

The park itself was a narrow elliptical island with Broadway running south in front of it, and a              smaller northbound road running a few feet from the imposing D &H  Railroad Headquarters                  building--a modern office building dressed with Gothic towers, windows and gargoyles to replicate a medieval guildhall in Ypres Belgium.  The park had the usual complement of medium size maple trees, park benches, tulip beds, pigeons, squirrels, etc.

• HENRY HUDSON
  EXPLORER, HERE ENDED THE
  VOYAGE OF THE HALF MOON
  IN QUEST OF THE INDIES
  SEPTEMBER, 1609
  Location: PLAZA, BROADWAY AT FOOT OF STATE ST.*
• FORT ORANGE                                                                                                                                                                SITE OF WEST INDIA COMPANY
  COLONY 1624. HERE WAS BORN
  SARAH RAPELJE, FIRST WHITE
  CHILD IN N. Y. STATE, 1625
  FORT STOOD S. E. BY THE RIVER 

            Location: PLAZA, BROADWAY AT FOOT OF STATE ST.

What was unusual about this little  park was the sheer number of New York State Historical Markers it held.  Lined up from one end of the island to the other they even overflowed onto  the street corners opposite the park.

•  ALBANY

        CALLED FORT NASSAU 1614,
        FORT ORANGE 1624,
        BEVERWYCK 1652, ALBANY
        1664; CHARTERED 1686
        Location: PLAZA, BROADWAY AT FOOT OF STATE ST.

• COLONIAL WARPATH

          RENDEVOUS OF TROOPS IN
          FIVE WARS. HERE ARMIES
          UNDER ABERCROMBIE, LOUDOUN
          AND AMHERST MOVED TO THE
          CONQUEST OF CANADA 1756-60
           Location: PLAZA, BROADWAY AT FOOT OF STATE ST.

• IROQUOIS TREATY

           BASIC PEACE BY GOV. DONGAN
           GOV. HOWARD OF VA. AND
           FIVE NATIONS AT COURT HOUSE
          WHICH STOOD 100 FEET WEST
          Location: PLAZA, BROADWAY AT FOOT OF HUDSON AVE

• GENERAL BURGOYNE 

            OVER THIS ROAD ENTERED
            ALBANY WITH HIS STAFF AFTER
            THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA
            GOING TO SCHUYLER MANSION
            AS PRISONERS OF WAR - 1777
            Location: PLAZA, BROADWAY AT FOOT OF STATE ST. 

• CLERMONT   
                                                                                                                                                                                             NEAR THE FOOT OF MADISON
  AVENUE ROBERT FULTON IN
  AUG. 1807, COMPLETED THE
  FIRST SUCCESSFUL
  STEAMBOAT VOYAGE
  Location: PLAZA, BROADWAY AT FOOT OF STATE ST.

• BIRTHPLACE OF
                                                                                                                                                                                    AMERICAN UNION
  NEAR THIS SITE, BENJAMIN
  FRANKLIN PRESENTED THE 1ST
  FORMAL PLAN OF NATIONAL
  UNION; CONGRESS OF 1754
  Location: PLAZA, BROADWAY AT FOOT OF STATE ST.
  

 
 For a certain nine or eleven year old boy the prospect of spending time in this park reading the signs and imagining the events that could have been witnessed from here, while he was awaiting  the bus home at the conclusion of a successful shopping trip with his mother was almost as exciting as the prospect of tearing into the cellophane wrapping enclosing the latest much-coveted plastic model airplane kit--a bribe for exhibiting patience and good behavior, on the trip. If the bus was late, and immediate interest waned in the historic signs, the history-charged youth could always imagine himself in the cockpit of a World War II fighter, defending his island-aircraft carrier from hoards of red and cream colored** enemy planes, dropping down the State Street Hill or coming in low, roaring down Broadway. Most would circle his island-carrier and return from whence they came, some slowing down to make their torpedo runs, before speeding up to make their escape; others hanging suspended along the curb as their bomb-bay doors, fore and aft, burst open and they disgorged their deadly ordinance in rapid regular succession. Usually, however, it wouldn't be long before a maternal hand would descend on the young aviator's shoulder--a reminder that spinning around and uttering airplane or even machine gun noises wasn't exactly acceptable public behavior.

In 1973 the D&H building was bought by the State University of New York at Albany and given an extensive renovation. The landscape architects determined the building needed a more suitable landscaped setting. No longer would the building's doorways open out onto the bare sidewalk, a  dozen feet from the curb.  The northbound lane was torn up and landscaped; ornamental trees replaced the native maples; the old park benches and old tulip beds disappeared.  And the New York State Historical Markers disappeared as well. To the University planners they probably seemed as quaint and unaesthetic as the rows of Burma Shave*** signs that sprung up along old route 20.

To my way of thinking, Albany is a little poorer for their disappearance.


*This, and the following seven markers are listed in "New York State Historical Markers,
www.nysm.nysed.gov/historicmarkers/hisaction.cfm

**Traction Company buses were painted red and cream colors, not the blue and white of today's CDTA bus fleet. 

***Burma Shave was a company that manufactured a brand of brushless shaving cream from 1927 until 1963. They advertised by posting series of roadside signs with a few words on each sign that taken together spelled out a short bit of doggerel that ended with the product name "Burma-Shave."  Often, each series promoted the Burma Shave product, or a traffic safety message. "If you think/ she like your bristles/ try walking barefooted/ through some thistles./ Burma-Shave" and "Dim Your Lights/ Behind a Car/Let folks see/ How bright/ YOU are./Burma-Shave" are two of several hundred produced.

It Happened Here -- (Part II) -- A Marker was Erected...

The first and second series of NYSHMs begun in 1927 and 1932 established a precedent for identifying the '"sponsors" or "producers"* of roadside markers in New York.  The markers of the 1927 series were identified as "New York State Historical Marker"(s), and the series begun in1932 were headed with "New York" and  a silhouette of the state  and finished with "State Education Department" and the date.

Of the 3588 markers recorded so far, 1641 (45.7%) are official "state" markers, and all but 166 (4.6%) have no sponsor listed.

NYS Agency Markers

"State Education Department"          1423

"State Historical Marker"                   166

"State Highway Dept."                         15

"N.Y. S. Ed. & Conservation Dept"       8

"N.Y. S. Bridge Authority                      2
"N.Y.S. Environmental Cons. Dept"      1

                                                          1615

Gov. Pataki Comm. Markers                26
                                                           1641 (45.7%)

Two factors that make  American government and society somewhat unique are the degree which government is decentralized and the high number of voluntary, and often transitory organizations
that operate in American society.  More than 54% of the historic markers recorded were the product of local governments, private organizations, interest groups, temporary committees, civic organizations, ad hoc groups of citizens, families or individuals. Approximately 715 groups and individuals sponsored the remaining 1781 signs. Often more than one organization appears as a marker's sponsor.  Below is an incomplete list of  sponsoring organizations by category.


Bicentennial, Sesquicentennial, Tricentennial Comm.         33
Schools, Alumni Assoc.                                                         9
Veterans Organizations                                                           7
Fraternal and Civic Organizations                                        24
   (Hibernians,Women's Clubs, Elks, Masons, K of C, Polish Am. Citizens, Rotary, Kiwanis, Grange)
Special Interest                                                                        9
    (Canal Society, Catskill Fly Fishermen, RR Historians, Covered Bridge Soc, Telephone Pioneers)
Chambers of Commerce, Tourism                                          7
Cemetery Associations                                                            5
Churches                                                                                12
Bar Associations                                                                      3
Ad hoc Citizen groups                                                             3
      (Citizens of Cairo, People of Troy, Proud and Grateful Citizens of Auburn)
"Friends of... "                                                                          6
       (Champlain, Rose Hill, Schoolcraft Cultural Ctr., the Drowned Lands, the Store, etc.)
Daughters of the Am. Rev., Sons of the Am. Rev.                   9
Private Businesses                                                                    7
Historical Societies/Associations                                            69
Cities                                                                                         6
Counties                                                                                    5
Villages                                                                                   19
Towns                                                                                      68
Historians (county, town)                                                          7
Historic Preservation/Hist. Register                                          9
Families and Individuals                                                          34


*The role that each "sponsoring/producing" organization played naturally varied considerably, with some organizations underwriting a whole project, and others simply organizing fund raising activities.  The amount of involvement in the researching and authentication of facts presented on the marker also could vary tremendously. "State Ed" signs and the Pataki commission signs relied on local groups submitting applications to the state for approval. In some cases the vetting process was not unimpeachable.  Which bring us to the Marker of the Week!

The Tree that allegedly Grew from a Walking Stick sprouted along Mill Pt. Rd., Duanesburg, Schenectady Co.

Next Week-- I will be going in for eye surgery so NYSHM's--It Happened Here will be on hiatus until about the first week of May when I expect to return bright eyed and bushy-chined. Hope you will stop by!

It Happened Here -- A Marker was Erected...

Everyone pretty much knows what  New York State Historical Markers are. They are (1)free standing, (2) cast iron or cast aluminum signs, (3) cruciform--twelve sided cross-shape [see a] (or 10 sided if you allow for the rectangular ones with a pointed top [see d] ), (4) painted blue and yellow, (5) with raised letters,  (6)produced/funded by the State government, or one of its agencies, that (7) locate or describe an historical event, person or place.

a

b

c

d

                                                                         

Except that--

--a few are mounted on the side of buildings or are cemented in boulders, or walls;

--are made are made of enameled steel, or even wood;

--they come in several other shapes, (an arched top with supporting pillars is popular);

--they are painted green and white (Guilderland, Jefferson Co,), red and white (Monroe Co., Hague), brown and yellow

(NY Conservation Dept.,Town of Mayfield), brown and white, blue and white, blue and white w/ red border ( village of Aurora) and other combinations;

--they are produce/funded by over 700 organizations including local governments. local historical societies and associations, committees formed to celebrate the U.S. bicentennial, local bicentennials, sesquicentennials, centennials, and a tricentennial (Albany), civic organizations, ad-hoc citizen groups, private individuals and families, churches, businesses and special interest groups;

--they sometimes have as subjects a geological feature, or a commercial enterprises or are privately created signs to make a political statement.

Along with writing this blog, over the last two years I've taken on a task of recording the
"NYSHMs" that are currently in the state.  (Large numbers have been destroyed or removed
over time and new ones continue to be placed.) I have relied predominantly on four websites,
the Historical Marker Data Base, New York Historical Markers--A Waymarking.Com Category,  Flickr--New York Historical Markers Group and William G. Pomeroy Foundation -- Historic Roadside Markers. I have published  on the Flickr site pictures of  Markers that I have personally found or rediscovered. To date I have recorded 3588 markers.

Because there is so much variability in NYSHMs I have set my parameters to include any signs that
meet at least three of the criteria I mentioned in the first paragraph.  I also excluded the large "Thruway rest area" type signs, known as State Historical Area Markers from my ongoing work simply because they are well documented in several places and are pretty much self explanatory. Similarly I have excluded the fiberglass signs and kiosks that often employ extensive text, pictures and graphics, again, because they generally don't require much additional explanation.  Finally, falling outside my study interest would be most commercial signs, brass or other plaques or signs, and inscribed public or cemetery monuments.

In commemoration of the Sesquicentennial of the American Revolution,  The New York State Education Department began funding in 1926 a series of signs bearing the inscription "New York State Historical Marker," [see a] I have recorded 59 of these, dated 1927 (31) 1928 (14) and 1929 (9).
Additionally, on several (5) of this type sign the dates could not be read because the signs had been snapped off and welding repairs or repair brackets obscured the dates.

The popularity of these markers led the legislature to authorize a second marker program beginning in 1932, with the "State Education Dept." identified as the sponsor [see b].  A whopping 624 markers were dated 1932, but then the Great Depression hit the following year.  My records show only 4 dated in 1933 and none in 1934; but then as W.P.A. and other economic stimulus monies became available the numbers surged with 277 in 1935, and over 100 in 1936 and 1938.  With the approach of war, the numbers dropped off to 9 in 1941; then none were produced again until  1947.

 From 1945, into the early 1960's a few local towns and villages, veterans groups and private organizations sponsored individual "state style" historic markers. Starting in 1959, Monroe County was the first local government to create their own historic markers, with a distinctive emblem, the Monroe County Courthouse, and red letters on a white background. They produced 21 markers  between 1959 and 1962, and a total of 49 reported markers.  Following Monroe County's lead an increasingly diverse group of public and private organizations began to commission signs.

 The State Ed. Department encouraged local agencies and groups to create their own distinctive designs but most continued to use the State Ed format and colors. There was a considerable financial incentive for them continue the state format. The one or two companies that produced the signs could offer markers for substantially less if existing molds and matrices were used. (see c)

The next spike in marker creation activity occurred during the American Bicentennial.  Counties, towns and villages were encouraged to plan their own bicentennial activities and many chose to design and dedicate historic markers in their areas as part of their celebrations. At least 24 local "Bicentennial Committees" or "Commissions" were formed which produced markers, although in some cases it is not clear whether they where formed to celebrate the American Bicentennial or their local government's bicentennial. The Schoharie Bicentennial Commission's markers, for example, all date from 1995, the two hundredth anniversary of the creation of Schoharie County. The Genessee Bicentennial Commission's markers date from 2003.  To complicate matters further, in 1989 local governments were encouraged to celebrate the bicentennial of the United States Constitution.  At least two commissions created signs for members of the convention that ratified the Constitution in  New York.  In 1975,1976 and 1977  44, 84 and 20 signs were created.

The late 1970's and early 1980's saw a waning of interest in marker creation, as the number of new markers dipped to single digits at the end of the 70's.

 From 1984 through end of the decade yearly numbers increased, with 1986 reaching a high of 33 signs created as towns in the middle of the state celebrated their bicentennials and as a wide variety of groups began to sponsor signs.  1985, with 22 signs is typical.  The NY departments of Education and Conservation both produced 1 sign; Towns and one village produced 9 signs; Bicentennial/ Sesquicentennial  Committees produced 2 signs; an historical society produced 1 sign; two Rotary Clubs each produced one sign and 2 families were each responsible for a sign.

Most of the 1990's resembled the 1980's with a low of 5 signs produced in 1991, and a high of 34 in 1995; then in 1998, New York Governor George Pataki called for localities to submit the names of famous local women to be considered for historic markers. I have come across 26 of these Pataki commission signs, but have not found the complete list.  The Pataki initiative seems to have created new interest, in that the  number of signs created from 1998 to 2008 jumped to an average of 33.6 signs per year.

In the last six years the William G. Pomeroy Foundation has been making grants for organizations in New York State to purchase markers.  To date, they have produced 182 signs, including a series of signs for building listed on the National Historic Register. In the last two years, 52 and 62 new markers have been erected in New York.

Next Week--"A Marker was Erected..." continues with a discussion of the the roles of local governments, historical societies, civic organizations, businesses, special interest groups, families
and individuals producing markers, and the Marker of the Week returns. (Where, oh where have you been, these many weeks!)

                

It Happened Here -- Pioneers and Potash

 

 

In the 18^th and early 19^th centuries settlers of the Mohawk and Schoharie Valleys, and the Helderberg hinterlands of Rensselaerwyck faced the gargantuan task of converting dense hardwood forests into farmlands. Once they had harvested the timber they needed for homes and barns, fences and furnishings, they were left with the task of disposing of all the rest of their unwanted wood. Fortunately the first Dutch settlers brought with them the knowledge of how to convert their surplus wood into a useable, transportable commodity they called “potaschen”.

Grant & Eadies Store, Rte 143 Westerlo

Hardwood wood ashes contained potassium salts that were essential compounds in a variety of chemical processes. Soap making, glass production, fabric bleaching, and the removal of fatty oils from raw wool, all relied on a commodity colonial New Yorkers knew as potash, or in its processed form,“pearl ash”. As land was cleared, great quantities of wood were seasoned and gathered into piles and burned in the open air. The clearing of land was accompanied not only by the sound of axes but by the presence of great fires that burned day and night. Among the most abundant trees in these forests were elms which were one of the best plant sources of potassium salts. The ashes from these fires were collected in wooden barrels and water was added to leech the potassium salts out. The wood bottoms of the barrels were replaced with a flagstone bottom with a channel cut in it to direct the liquid off to a container. Then the water was boiled off in large pots, leaving a hard black crystalline residue known as “black salts”, a mixture of potassium salts and carbon particles. One large elm might yield as much as 200 pounds of black salts. Finally, the carbon particles were burned off in high temperature brick ovens, or kilns leaving a bluish white powder, “pearl ash”.
 

NEAR THIS SITE IN 1764
PETER HASENCLEVER BUILT AN
ASHERY WHICH WAS THE FIRST
FRAME BUILDING ERECTED IN
THE TOWN OF SCHUYLER.

COL. MARINUS WILLETT, CHAPTER D.A.R.

1976

                                                                          (Frankfort)

This refined potash became a valuable commodity domestically, and shipped to Britain where the wool industry was thriving.  Though never profitable enough to sustain itself as a business, the profits of  cottage potash production might be enough to pay the wages of an axeman/laborer to help clear the land, or enable a settler to buy extra acreage, or help sustain a family until the first crops could be planted and harvested. Of course, a large landowner or tenant farmer, clearing a large amount of land might realize a substantial income from potash. The account books of Frederick Crounse, for example, show his income from potash in 1794-1795. Crounse leased 600 acres in “Hellenbergh”, an area beneath the Helderberg Escarpment in an area known as Altamont, today.   

                                                                                                                                                                        During the American revolution Crounse and nine other tenant farmers had responded to an urgent call for food for the American army at Saratoga, providing barrels of salt pork, and herding their cattle and hogs to the army encamped at Bemis Heights. In return, the Patroon, Stephen Rensselaer forgave Crounse the annual quit-rent due on Crounse's farm for life. In the early 1790's Crounse must have undertaken a sizable conversion of his forested land to farmland. In 1794 his records show he produced 40 barrels of potash (ashes?), sold for a profit of 67£. Over the winter he bought two potash kettles, valued at 16£ each and apparently with them that year produced 27 barrels of potash (black ash or pearl ash?) valued at 87£.

One source described potash kettles as 1/2 an egg shaped with the bottom cast thick to withstand the heat of evaporating the potash down to "cake".

Large Kettle (potash?) at the Jacob Crounse House, Altamont

Warner's Lake

In a frontier economy, where cash was in short supply, enterprising country store proprietors could barter their merchandise for farmer's raw ashes or black salts. In 1823 in Schoharie County good quality hearth ashes sold for 8¢ a bushel (store credit). By mid century 100 lbs. of black salts brought $3.00. Some store owners encouraged the trade in black salts by renting to farmers the large kettles used to boil down the ash slurry. Some, increased their profits by maintaining their own ovens at their stores to refine black salts into pearl ash. Similarly, they could take the raw hides of the livestock farmers butchered, for store credit, and tan them themselves, taking the leather to trade for store merchandise from their city suppliers. A few, like Major Willis, took local manufacturing even further, turning farmer's products (grain and hides) into consumer goods (“ardent spirits”, shoes) that he could sell directly back to farmers.

South Westerlo

By 1845 there were 738 "asheries" in New York State producing $909,194 of potash. The state's new canal system was a major boon to the potash industry with the Erie and Champlain canals connecting much of New York with Montreal, the major potash exporting port. During the early years of the canal system, potash, wheat and whiskey were the three biggest commodities shipped by barge.

In the 1850's mineral potash began to be mined in Germany.  Canada followed suit and the international market for organic potash collapsed. By 1865 there were only 54 asheries left in New York and many of these may have been inactive, by then.



 Marker  of the Week -- Oops!

Columbia Co. Rte. 19, Elizaville

Sometimes you think you have the makings of an interesting story but it just doesn't turn out the way you anticipate. Calendar houses are an architectural oddity that first appeared in England around the time of Queen Elizabeth I.  Architectural features would be built into a house/palace mimicking the numbers found in the calendar (365 days, 52 weeks, 12 months, 7 days, 4 seasons etc.) Large houses might be built with 365 panes of glass, 52 steps on all the staircases, 12 doorways, and 7 gables and 4 chimneys, for example. The form had a re- surgence in popularity during the Enlightenment and again during the Victorian period,  and there are approximately a dozen houses across Britain that can be called Calendar houses.  Other examples appeared in other parts of the British empire -- Ireland, Jamaica,  and Australia.  It seemed reasonable there should be some in  
the United States.  When I discovered the listing for the "Calendar House" in the State Museum NYSHM list I resolved I had to see it on my next trip into Columbia County.  Finding the marker I started up the long driveway, preparing myself for the task of count chimney bricks, window panes,  outhouses -- whatever. About halfway up the driveway I met the property manager coming out.  ( The 1773 Calendar House is rented out for weddings and for large family vacations, etc.)  He explained the original Callendar House, (two L's) in central Scotland was the ancestral home of the Livingstons and this home was named for that one. (and I didn't need to go to the trouble of counting window panes, chimneys, outhouses, etc., but I was welcome to go and take a picture of it anyway.) After some research at the Columbia County Historical Society I had more of the story.

Callendar House (also spelled Callender House) in central Scotland dates back to 1345.  The Scottish Livingstons had lost this house after they supported the Jacobin rebellion in 1715 and again in 1745,  when Lady Anne Livingston's husband, the Earl of Kilmarnoc, was beheaded for high treason.  In America, Robert Livingston (3d Lord of the Manor, grandson of the 1st Lord, Robert Livingston, the elder) had wanted to rename the Livingston Manor house on the Roeliff Jansen Kill "Callendar" after he made improvements to the house, but he was dissuaded by other members of the family.  Ostensibly this was because the American manor house, even with its improvements, was quite modest compared to the Scottish "Great House" but also, unstated, may have been the desire not to remind the British authorities so soon after the abortive rebellions of the connection between the American Livingstons and their traitorous Scottish cousins.

Generations and politics change over time.  One of the early acts of the legislature of the State of New York would be the outlawing of primogeniture and entail. When Robert, the 3d Lord died in 1790;  no 4th Lord of the manor would inherit the bulk of his estate. Instead his lands would be divided up more or less equally between his four sons. Each would inherit a paltry 28,000 acres and
(General) Harry Livingston, his third son, would move into a substantial (if not palatial) farmhouse built by Samuel TenBroek in 1773. He would name it Callendar House, and not care what His Majesties' Government thought about it. Sometime between Harry's purchase of the house, and the State's creation of the NYSHM,  "Callendar" became  "Calendar" and though I did not get to count bricks, window panes, doorways or outhouses, I did get a peek at an old and very handsome house.