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 -- The Big Cheeses

US 11, north of Pulaski

One of the grand stories of the Jacksonian era that is told to illustrate a sea change in American democracy is the story of the "Big Cheese." Though the American revolution had been fought by people of all social strata, the democracy that emerged out of the conflict was one that had a distinct upper middle class and aristocratic bias. State constitutions were written by community leaders that sought to insure that only people with considerable land holdings or other wealth would have the right to vote. One result was that the first six presidents all came from the Virginian planter aristocracy or the Boston mercantile elite.  With peace came the opening of the frontiers in many areas and the growth of small independent farmers and tradesmen who demanded a voice in their government. By the time Andrew Jackson ran for president property qualifications had been reduced or swept aside in the states and Jackson was able to ride into office on a tide of a new tradesman/ farmer/ workingman electorate.

In upstate New York, one of those successful independent farmers was Thomas Meacham.  Meacham was actually a Whig and had voted for Jackson's opponent, but once Jackson was in office he and other farmers from Oswego County decided to send him a present. Years before, farmers from Cheshire Massachusetts had sent President Jefferson a large cheese but now Meacham felt he could really outdo them!  For one thing, the logistics of moving a such large gift had become much easier, since inland canals and waterways now virtually linked his farm with the White House.  A short wagon ride would bring his cheese to the Oswego River Canal where it would go by canal boat to Syracuse and then via the Erie Canal to Albany. At Albany it would go by schooner to New York, down the coast and up the Potomac, almost to the President's front door.

Building a hoop, nearly four foot in diameter and over two foot high, he constructed a special over-sized cheese press.  From his 154 cow herd he produced milk curd, and over a five day period the hoop was filled and the cheese pressed. A decorative belt was created to surround the cheese and keep its wrapper in place. On it was a bust of the president and a chain of the twenty four states, and Jackson's patriotic toast, "The Union-It Must be Preserved."


                                                                                    Enthusiasm for Jackson was evidenced elsewhere
                                                                                                     in the State including at this bridge over the Hudson
                                                                                                                                     at Schuylerville
 

Along with the great cheese, ten other smaller cheeses were made, for Vice President Van Buren, Governor William L. Marcy, Senator Daniel Webster, the Congress and the New York Legislature, and the cities of Rochester, Utica, Troy, Albany and New York. As the cheeses made their way through New York State they became the center of patriotic celebrations and were paraded  through towns on flag bedecked wagons. At a large celebration at New York's Masonic Hall Senator Daniel Webster accepted his cheese. On January 1st 1836 President Jackson was presented with his mammoth cheese, as it was deposited in the vestibule of the White  House¹

Jackson made a valiant effort to distribute the cheese to staff, friends, visiting dignitaries, political supporters and perhaps even political opponents with whom Jackson was on speaking terms, but after several months of giving away large hunks of the stuff, the bulk of it was still there, aromatically aging in the warm Washington climate. In 1837 Jackson was in the last months of the second term of his Presidency and faced with the likelihood of having to haul perhaps a half ton of cheese back to Tennessee or leaving it for President-elect Van Buren (who still had his own 700 lb. Oswego cheese.that he would eventually sell in a charity auction.)

When Jackson had first come into power he had held an open house for all his supporters and the White House had been besieged by thousands of visitors.  The carpets, draperies, furniture and woodwork had suffered as the crush of well-wishers had forced the President to make an escape out of a back door (some said window.) The actual damage and unruliness of the crowd may have been overstated by a conservative press anxious to illustrate the dangers of giving political power to the common man. Since then, Jackson had had several better managed and controlled public receptions allowing people to express their opinions, but on this last open house, on Washington's birthday he invited the people of the Federal City in simply to eat cheese.  Thousands attended and in two hours it was all gone--all gone that is, except for the essence.  President Jackson's successor, Martin Van Buren, was forced that spring to wash the carpets and draperies and to paint and white-wash to get rid of the last traces of a cheese that  occupied the White House for a longer tenure than several presidents!

                                                                      --------------------
In the 18th century wheat was the major crop of New York farmers, with the Mohawk, Schoharie and Cherry Valleys becoming known as the "bread baskets of the Revolution."  By the first decades of the 19th century this was beginning to change. Larger wheat farms came into being in the states that were established  in the old Northwest Territory. The Erie Canal provided access to markets for these farms.  New York farmers began to diversify, raising more livestock and vegetables. The dairy industry began as feeder canals, turnpikes and plank roads brought urban markets within a day or two from most farms. More durable dairy products could be produced on a large scale. In Prattsville, Zaddock Pratt encouraged dairying on the lumbered-over hills surrounding his former tannery town. He favored commercial butter-making for the New York City market.  Oswego county farmers and  farmers in the Tug Hill Plateau region favored cheese making operations, and a "Cheese Factory" was begun in Berne, in the Albany County "hilltowns".

Albany Co. Rte 156, Berne

1At some point, it was probably moved to the East Room, for a drawing of the East Room exists with the cheese prominently displayed near its center.

It Happened Here -- Part II--A Close  Thing (Twice)

At Sacket's Harbor   

In the eight months of war that followed the first battle of Sacket's Harbor the little port town had been transformed. Its population had exploded with a large influx of Army regulars, militiamen, sailors and civilian ship builders. Shipbuilding facilities, warehouses for ship supplies and  supplies for armies mobilizing here for attacks on the Niagara Frontier and Upper Canada had sprung up around the port. Sacket's Harbor had became the headquarters for prosecuting the war along the northern front.

But surprisingly, the defenses to protect this vital town remained incomplete. The Fort Tompkins blockhouse had been finished, along with the shore batteries that flanked it and both were now armed. 

 

 

Another battery had been built on the opposite side of the harbor, called Fort Volunteer, and any ship that attempted to force its way into the harbor might be subject to a murderous cross-fire. To the southwest a new blockhouse, and Fort Virginia, a small fort built from squared timbers had been constructed.

 

But much of the rest of the town's perimeter was only lightly fortified. A map drawn by General Macomb in March 1813 showed how vulnerable it was. Around much of the perimeter there was nothing but an abbatis of felled trees with their sharpened branches sticking out toward would-be attackers (the 18th and early 19th century equivalent of barbed wire.)  Behind this it appears were a scattering of small wooden redoubts (small log walls, that gave infantrymen some cover, when firing from behind them) -- that was all! To the west of  Fort Tompkins were three rows of unfortified log barracks, with four large rooms in each of them, known as the Basswood Cantonment.

In May of 1813 the British were smarting from a successful raid the Americans had made on the town of York (Toronto) at the far end of the lake. The town had been burned and the Americans had carted off a large amount of supplies that were now being stored in Sacket's Harbor. The American's had also started building at Sacket's Harbor, a large brig, the General Pike, named for the American general killed in that raid. Then on the 28th of May the Americans launched a major assault on Fort George, near Niagara Falls.  British Commander of the fleet on the Great Lakes Captain James Yeo, and  Governor General of Canada, Sir George Provost sensed an opportunity. They cobbled together a raiding party composed of eight companies from four regiments, two companies of French Canadian Voltigeurs and about forty Canadian Native Americans to attack the weakened post of Sacket's Harbor.

As the raiding party began to come ashore, south of the town they spotted sails approaching.  Fearing it was Commodore Chauncey's fleet returning from Ft. George, they hastily returned to their ships but then realized it was nothing more than a group of nineteen American batteaux, under sail, from Oswego. Newly recruited element of the 9th and 21st Regiments were being sent to bolster the defenses at Sacket's Harbor. The British sent three large canoes of Native Americans and a gunboat after them. Seven batteaux escaped and eventually reached Sacket's Harbor. The British opened fire on the rest and the Americans attempted to escape by beaching their boats on Stony Point at the mouth of Henderson Bay and attempting to flee into the woods.  In less than an hour the Indians had tracked down and scalped thirty five of them. The rest, some 115 circled back to their boats where they surrendered to the British.

While the "Battle of Henderson Bay" was a complete British victory, it gave time for the Americans to muster the militia from the  surrounding countryside and to ready their defenses. The infirmary was scoured for any men capable of standing and aiding in a defense.  A unit called the "silver greys" composed mostly of Revolutionary War veterans, that normally performed auxiliary duties was called upon to man the battery at Fort Volunteer. 

Following the battle a larger fortification was built on the site of Ft.Volunteer

The next day the British landed on Horse Island, a small island about a mile from the Harbor that was connected to the shore by a narrow causeway.  As they landed they came under fire from the Albany Volunteers, who had been posted on the island.  The big 32 pounder at Fort Tompkins, that had played such an important role in the first battle,  also reached over the long distance to do damage,  and the militia firing from behind a gravel embankment contributed to British losses.  The Albany Volunteers retreated from the island, then the British, their landing accomplished, charged the narrow spit of land connecting shore and island. The militia from behind their natural gravel breastworks, could have offered serious resistance  but instead they fled in panic into the woods. Once on shore the British formed into two columns, one to advance along shore toward Fort Tompkins and the harbor, the other to protect the first column's flank.

 Despite the militia's precipitous flight, elsewhere pockets of resistance began to coalesce. On the Americans extreme left under the encouragement of one Captain Samuel M'Nitt a group of about 100 militiamen were fighting from behind several downed trees. On the American's right 250 dismounted Dragoons from the 1st Regiment, led by Colonel Electus Backus blocked the road leading to Fort Tompkins and to their left, the Albany Volunteers put up a stiff resistance. They were even joined by soldiers from Fort Volunteer.

Gradually, the British superiority of numbers forced the Americans back.  The Dragoons made a stand in a low drainage ditch that ran from in front of the new log barracks to the water; then they retreated to the partially completed barracks themselves, where fierce fighting occurred as muskets, bayonets and swords were thrust and parried in and out through windows and doors.

In front of Fort Tompkins one of the British ships had worked its way forward  to where it could fire on the fort. The wind had become extremely light and variable, but the Beresford's captain had used his ship's sweeps (long oars) to maneuver his boat to where he could attack the fort. The ship's cannon fire drove the Tompkin's gun crews from their guns and several shots from the Beresford         flew over the fort, crashing into the port. At the port a young acting Lieutenant John Drury had been given the order to set fire to the warehouses and the General Pike if the British were about to take the town.  From his position he could see panicked and wounded militiamen and solders streaming back through the town. He could hear the guns of Fort Tompkins had fallen silent, and then perhaps he thought the Fort's guns were being turned on the port itself. The young novice officer decided the time had come to execute his order. Within a few minutes the warehouses filled with ships stores and recently captured British supplies were burning out of control. He had set fire to the General Pike and also to the recently captured Duke of Gloucester.   

The acting Commandant of Sacket's Harbor was General Jacob Brown who had taken command of the port when General Henry Dearborne had left on the expedition against Fort George.  Brown was a General of Militia and was especially upset and embarrassed when his men had so precipitously fled at the beginning of the battle. Determined to bring them back, he sent out several mounted Dragoons into the woods armed with a lie. He told them to tell the fleeing men they found, that the British were beaten and in retreat.  When about three hundred of them were collected up, prepared to join in the victory, Brown addressed them, shaming them for their actions, exhorting them to redeem themselves, and steeling them for the fighting that still had to be done. (And assuring them that he had taken precautions that any of them that showed conspicuous cowardliness would be shot.)  He then marched about two hundred of them through the woods to attack the flank of British troops attacking the barracks.  The other one hundred were sent farther back to attack the British landing site if the opportunity presented itself.

By now the British attack was beginning to falter. Nearly one third of the attackers had been killed or wounded and Fort Tompkins and the Port had yet to be taken. Informants had told Captain Yeo and General Prevost that another regiment of Americans was at Oswego and would presumably try to march to the aid of the Americans at Sacket's Harbor. Now with the sudden appearance of Americans firing on their flanks it was easy to jump to the conclusion that this had happened. General Prevost called for a withdrawal. For the exhausted British troops the withdrawal deteriorated into a rout.  The Americans could not keep up and scores of dead and wounded British soldiers were left behind where they fell as the King's forces scrambled to return to their landing area. George Provost made one last effort to accomplish with bravado that which he could he could not accomplish with arms. He demanded the Americans surrender the town to him; then he demanded his surgeons be allowed to treat their wounded and recover them.  The Americans laughed at his first demand, and assured him his wounded would be treated with all humanity and care as American prisoners of war.

The warehouses set on fire were a total loss as some $500,000 went up in flames.  The ships, however, built out of green wood did not burn well and were saved.

Following this attack the defenses around Sacket's Harbor were greatly improved.  Fort Volunteer was replaced by Fort Pike with higher ramparts, more guns and a blockhouse.  The abbatis surrounding the town was strengthened by a wooden breastworks. A stone tower, Ft. Chauncy guarded one of the main roads into the town,  and an earthen redoubt, covering the road taken by the British in the 1813 attack was built. Sacket's Harbor was never attacked again.

 

It Happened Here -- A Close  Thing (Twice)

At Sacket's Harbor   Part I

Barely a month had passed since the Congress of the United States in a far from unanimous vote, had voted to declare war on Great Britain.  Sacket's Harbor¹ residents must have steeled themselves for the future with feelings of both ambivalence and trepidation.  Since 1801 the sleepy little port town owed it existence mainly to trade across the lake, including a profitable trade in potash, destined for the nearly tree-less  Britain²  But now the British and Canadians were their enemies. For some time changes had been in the wind. Congress had enacted embargo acts in 1807 and in 1809 that made trade with Britain and France illegal and in 1809 the U.S. government had bought the brig Oneida from private owners on Lake Ontario to attempt to interdict this trade. In July of 1812 the Oneida had captured the Lord Nelson, a  Canadian merchant sloop carrying on trade between New York and Upper Canadian ports. Meanwhile, the British had built up a sizable little fleet based in Kingston, only a short distance away, across the lake. While the Lord Nelson and the eighteen gun Oneida rested at anchor in the harbor, on shore a blockhouse and gun emplacements were being hastily constructed. But the residents undoubtedly observed their were no guns for the new battery, and in fact the only ordinance in town was a huge old 32 pounder, obtained for the Oneida but rejected because the 6500 lb, 10 foot long cannon was simply too big and too heavy for the little brig

"Old Sow" Replica on the Sacket's Harbor Battlefield

On the Canadian side, the British war office was urging restraint in dealing with the Americans. Locked in a death struggle with Napoleon, they simply didn't need another war with another enemy on another front, no matter how weak and unprepared it was. On the other hand, they knew a few short miles away at anchor in a defenseless harbor, sat their ship that had been "pirated" from them with the brig that was the cause of their irritation.

On September 19, 1812 a British fleet comprised of the Royal George (24guns), the Seneca (18guns), the Prince Regent (20 guns), the Earl of Moira (20 guns) and the Simcoe  set sail for Sacket's Harbor.

The British attack force was first spotted from the masthead of the Oneida.  The American ship attempted to make for open water, but was cut off and returned to the harbor. There she
anchored and prepared to fight as a floating, stationary battery. Her eight shore-facing guns were removed and placed in the shore emplacements. Only the day before, the large 32 lb. gun had been mounted in a pivoting emplacement  at the head of the new battery. Captain Chauncey
placed sailing master William Vaughn in charge of this gun.

As the Americans began their final preparations they discovered a catastrophic oversight.  There was no ammunition large enough for the 32 pounder in town! When Vaughn attempted to use the 24 lb cannon balls in the larger cannon  much of the explosive force of the burning gunpowder simply roared past the smaller ball and the shot fell far short of its target.  From on board the attacking ships the artillery crews on shore could hear peals of derisive laughter.  Then Vaughn had an inspiration. The professional navy man knew
                                                            

Site of Ft. Tompkins Blockhouse; Gun Emplacements near the hedge

that riflemen achieved greater range and accuracy by wrapping their rifle balls in a patch of oiled cloth or buckskin, partly to contain the force of the gunpowder blast behind the ball, propelling it to its target. He ordered a bewildered subordinate to run to his house and rip up the parlor rug in his sitting room and bring it to him. When the man returned, he cut it into large patches which he wrapped around each shot before forcing them down the barrel of his "old sow" cannon.

By now the British ships were firing broadsides at the gun batteries and the American batteries were returning fire, but having limited effect because the Oneida's armaments were carronades--a shorter cannon, with shorter range, and the ships of the British fleet were careful to stay beyond their reach.

A Carronade at Sackets Harbor

A 24 lb. Canon at Sackets Harbor

For about two hours American and British artillery dueled.  But while the British shot were slamming into the rocks below the battery or plowing up the muddy earth beyond the American emplacements, cannon fire, mainly from Vaughn's gun was crashing into spars and bringing down rigging. Then as the Royal George tacked once again to bring its lake-facing guns around so they could fire at the shore battery, a lucky shot from the 32-pounder plowed into the rear cabin of the fleet's flagship, crashing through the whole length of the ship and exiting out of the bow. The destruction and carnage was terrific. From one end of the ship to the other, gun carriages were splintered  and cannon upended; sailors were crushed and dismembered; eight crewmen died immediately. Following this blow, the Royal George gave the signal to retreat and  the British fleet bore off to Kingston.

The next two plus years saw major changes at Sacket's Harbor as army, navy, marines and civilian shipbuilders flooded into this town of a few hundred souls, turning it briefly into the third largest city in New York State, becoming one of the nation's busiest shipbuilding ports.   Sacket's Harbor had escaped its first trial but it would face a more severe trial in a little over eight months.  (Next week Part II)

1Since its first settlement, Sacket's Harbor has been spelled a variety of ways. Some early documents refer to it as “Sackett's Harbor” For much of its history it has been “Sacket's Harbor.” Modern postal regulations do not allow for th use of apostrohes so today it is “Sackets Harbor.”
2Check out “It Happened Here - Pioneers and Potash” in NYSHMs: It Happened Here posted on 8-23-13.

It Happened Here -- Zim's Bandstand

One of the most endearing features of many small towns in upstate New York are their small parks and the well maintained bandstands that date from an era when most entertainments were homemade.

Eugene Zimmerman was born in Basel Switzerland in 1862. After his mother died, his father, a baker, and older brother emigrated to America and he was sent to live with relatives in French Alsace-Lorraine. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out Eugene joined them in America.  Zimmerman loved to doodle and draw caricatures. He later claimed his first drawings were made in frosting on the cakes his father baked, in his Patterson, New Jersey bakery. The young man tried his hand at a wide variety of jobs.  A stint as a sign painter's apprentice was an important bridge to his future profession, bringing him to Elmira, New York. Meanwhile,  he continued to teach himself to become a cartoonist by copying the cartoons of others and by constantly drawing.    (A cartoon he would draw as a successful cartoonist is perhaps autobiographical.  It shows a young boy having been caught drawing a caricature on a horse stall in his barn by his father. It is grotesque and funny. His somewhat annoyed father asks him who is its subject. The boy stutters "B-ben H-harrison"(president).  It is obviously a caricature of his father.)

In 1883 Zimmerman put together a portfolio of his cartoons and went looking for a job in New York City.  He found one at Punch, a Democratic political magazine.  Since at least the early Enlightenment political cartoons had been an element in political discourse. A generation before, Thomas Nast had made the political cartoon a force in American politics. His cartoons of New York's Tammany Hall organization and its leader "Boss" Tweed were instrumental in bringing down the Democratic Party boss. Tweed was once quoted as saying "I don't care a straw for your newspaper articles, my constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures."

Zimmerman, who began to sign his cartoons "Zim," worked for Punch for two and a half years until he heard of a new magazine in the works.  Judge would be both a magazine of political commentary and satire and of general social satire. It would have a Republican orientation, more in line with Zimmerman's personal political leanings; and with fewer cartoonists on staff and with a broader societal focus it would give "Zim" greater opportunities for expression.  It was a good fit and Zimmerman would work for Judge for twenty-five years, until he retired. Over his lifetime an incredible 40,000 of his drawings would be published.

In 1886 Zimmerman married Mabel Alice Beard of Horseheads¹, New York,  a town adjacent to Elmira.  Two years later he arranged with his editor to go to New York on alternate weeks, and to work from home on the other weeks.  The couple moved to a home next to Teal Park in 

Horseheads²

^{Though his work focused his attention on national politics and on the melting pot that was New York City in the last quarter of the 19th} century^{3,"Zim" threw himself into the life of the local community, serving as a village trustee, joining the Rotary Club and the local volunteer fire department and organizing a community brass band. From retirement he would write and illustrate several books about his region and his community:  Zimm's Foolish History of Elmira and its Tributaries,  Zim's Foolish History of Horseheads and two later editions of the Foolish History of Horseheads,} 

Teal Park. Horseheads

^{In 1910 "Zim" designed a band stand for his band.  Neither a Victorian wedding cake nor a neoclassical temple--designs favored in many community bandstands, Zim's bandstand has the feel of a spinning carousel; and to complete its whimsical feel, it sports a trio of grasshopper and frog musicians. The bandstand was dedicated in 1914.}

1Horseheads got its name when early settlers came upon a pile of horse skulls. At the end of the Clinton-Sullivan Campaign against the Iroquois, in 1778, before Continental army troops boarded their boats for the return trip down the Chemung River their worn out, surviving pack horses were butchered for their meat. It was the skeletal remains of these animals that the first settlers found.

2“Zim” was attracted to the quiet life and simple amenities of the small town of Horseheads but no doubt the name “Horseheads” appealed to his sense of whimsy as well.

3Today “Zim's” cartoons are sometimes criticized for their racial and ethnic stereotyping but as a leading caricaturist of what became known as the “grotesque” style cartooning all ethnic groups came under the attack of his pen. Favorite subjects also included “crackers.” smug rural white people, gathered around their public forum, the county-store cracker barrel, and “Jays,” rural whites lost and confused in the big city or blissfully unaware of its traffic patterns-the origin of the term “Jay-walkers.”

It Happened Here -- A Man in the Shadows

By the end of November 1860 the votes had been counted, and the issue decided. Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer from Illinois would be the nation's next President.  But in the South this news was greeted with outrage, anguish and alarm. The South's worst fears were realized.  A "black Republican" -- a man on record for opposing the spread of slavery into the territories and widely suspected of being a closet abolitionist would be their next President unless the southern states did something about it. In several of these states that something was secession.  States across the South held conventions to debate secession and as the inauguration drew near, several states, beginning with South Carolina voted to secede from the Union.  In Maryland, the southern state that surrounded Washington on three sides that something would be obstruction, and probably -- murder.

Despite the unsubstantiated  rumors of groups forming to prevent the President from being inaugurated,  Republican party leaders organizing Lincoln's trip from his home in Springfield Illinois to the Capitol paid scant attention to the President-elect's personal security. The trip was designed to be something of victory processional with multiple opportunities for party faithful as well as the general public to meet and greet their new President along a route that led from Illinois, across Indiana and Ohio, across the breadth of New York State, to Albany, down to New York City, to Philadelphia, thence to Harrisburg, into Wilmington, Delaware, then Baltimore and finally Washington.  Metropolitan police along the route were contacted to provide security and crowd control through cities in which Lincoln's entourage would stop. Their effectiveness varied.  In Buffalo a joyous mob overcame the police, pressed in upon the President's party, nearly crushing the President and dislocating the shoulder of one of his aides. At Albany masses of police and the State's 25th Regiment prevented a similar incident. And in Baltimore the police marshal, George P. Kane (an ardent secessionist) declared the police would not be providing an escort for the President-elect, lamely maintaining that one would not be needed.

  Lincoln in Albany

President-elect Abraham Lincoln was greeted

by a large, boisterous crowd on

February 18, 1861, as he stopped in Albany

on his way to his inauguration in

Washington, D.C.

--tablet/fiberglass marker on the east lawn of the

State Capitol (apparently removed for the winter)

Throughout the trip, no body guard accompanied the President-elect, though several of the military men in the entourage, at the last minute, decided to arm themselves, offering a revolver to Lincoln, who declined it.

The first efforts to ferret out information about possible plots came not from the government, or from Lincoln's party at all, but from a railroad executive. Samuel Morse Felton of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad had begun hearing rumors of plots by secessionists to destroy rail lines into Washington in a bid to take over the Capital. He contacted Allan Pinkerton of Chicago, whose detective agency had previously done work for the railroads helping them catch thieves and embezzlers. Pinkerton immediately dispatched several operatives to Baltimore, setting himself up, posing as a southern securities broker in the city, while his men tried to get close to a group of  plotters who called themselves the "National Volunteers".

About the same time a small group of young Republicans in Washington concerned about the rumors of plots swirling around the city organized themselves into an informal "committee of safety".  One of them,  Lucius Chittenden was secretly contacted by a group of Baltimore Republicans. They revealed to him details they had discovered of a plot to surround Lincoln's train car and kill him when it was in the process of being switched from one rail line to another in Baltimore.  (Thru lines and central rail stations were not common at this time. Several times in his trip Lincoln had had to change trains, taking a carriage from one line's station to board another line's train in another part of town.  In Baltimore a track connected the PW&B line to the railroad servicing Washington, but because of the fire hazard the wood burning engines posed to the downtown area, cars switching lines had to be pulled through the downtown area by teams of horses. It was here the plotters were planning to strike.)

A third group of investigators were set in motion by General Winfield Scott, who had been ordered to Washington from New York to oversee the security of the capital city. Scott asked New York Police Superintendent John A. Kennedy if he would send a couple detectives to Baltimore to see what they could find out about the troubling rumors emanating from there. A pair of New York city detectives,

Cortland Co. Rte. 41, Homer, New York(2)

Tom Sampson and Eli DeVoe were assigned and attempted to infiltrate a group hostile to Lincoln, using the aliases Thompson and Davis.  Posing as two outgoing, outspoken southern businessmen from Augusta, Georgia and Mobile, Alabama(1)  they worked to ingratiate themselves with Baltimore secessionists getting themselves accepted into a paramilitary group calling itself the "Southern Volunteers". As new members of the group they listening to fiery secessionist speeches, drilled with the organization and even took oaths to kill Lincoln, if the opportunity should present itself.

 It was while they were first hanging around  attempting to identify radical secessionist that they were spotted by Timothy Webster, one of Pinkerton's operatives. He recognized Tom Sampson from when he worked as a New York detective. Never fully accepted into the group, their "cover" was compromised when DeVoe's wife sent him a letter postmarked from New York. Though they were able to explain away the New York postmark they came under constant surveillance and began to fear for their lives. Abruptly they left their hotel, abandoning their bags and catching a train for Washington.

In Washington they checked into the famous Willard Hotel(3). Foolishly, perhaps from habit, they registered under the aliases they had used in Baltimore.  After they settled into their room Sampson returned to the lobby only to be surprised by the sight of two men he recognized from the "Southern Volunteers" perusing the hotel registry. About the same time a third man sidled up to Sampson, whispering hoarsely to him "For God's sake, Tom, come out of this." They slipped outside by a side door and Sampson recognized the man as Timothy Webster.  Webster explained he had been sent by a "most desperate Secession party" with twenty other men to kill DeVoe and Sampson on sight. He counseled him to leave immediately, taking a train at a station fifteen miles out of Washington, because the Washington train stations were all being watched.(4) Reaching the outlying station Samson and DeVoe boarded a train to Baltimore, only to discover to their horror three men they recognized from the "Volunteers" were sitting in the front of the car. They were joined by three more, and while the train sped along one of the men grinned at the others, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder at DeVoe and Thompson. They had clearly been spotted. With few options open to them the two detectives chose a desperate move. They casually walked to the rear of the car then jumped from the moving train. Both survived with many cuts and bruises. DeVoe sprained his ankle, badly. Hailing a horse drawn street car, then a hack they caught a train heading north. Once safely north of the Mason/Dixon line they made their report.

It is not certain if DeVoe and Sampson's report  figured into Lincoln's decision to change his travel plans. When Samuel Felton received Pinkerton's information he immediately dispatched the Chicago detective to warn the President-elect. General Scott also acted on information from several sources-- Chittenden's, the report of another New York detective David Bookstaver, who was working undercover as a music agent to Washington and Baltimore society and perhaps Thompson and DeVoe's. Scott sent an urgent warning to the President using Frederick Seward,  William H. Seward's son as a courier. When Lincoln got these dispatches, following Pinkerton's information, he determined these threats were probably real and directed his staff to devise an alternate plan.

The following day Lincoln returned to Philadelphia, was placed on an overnight coach to Washington and whisked through Baltimore to the Federal City, a full day before the conspirators expected him.

Did Thompson and DeVoe's efforts help frustrate a plot to kill Lincoln? Perhaps. At any rate, their discovery and the plotters efforts to kill them did provide an important distraction for the conspirators and allowed Pinkerton's men to get closer to the plotters, allowing them to get the information to present to President.

After the "Baltimore Plot" the name Eli DeVoe disappears from the historical record, except for one other incident.  Following the second attempt on Lincoln's life, this one successful, DeVoe is named as one of the detectives involved in the arrest in 1865 of Mary Surrat, the boarding house owner convicted in John Wilkes Booth plot.  Allan Pinkerton went on to create the Intelligence Service for the Army of the Potomac, soon to be known as the Union Intelligence Service.  Did DeVoe join this agency? Did he continue on as a New York City detective? It certainly appears Police Superintendendent Kennedy had no compunctions about sending agents wherever he thought they were needed.  In 1874 DeVoe died and was buried in Summit, New Jersey.  For most of his life Eli DeVoe remained "a man in the shadows".

1DeVoe had lived in Mobile for several years.

2DeVoe was actually a member of the N.Y. Metropolitan Police. The U.S. Secret Service was not formed until July1865 and for many years dealt only with counterfeiting investigations. It was not until after McKinley's assassination in 1901 that Congress gave it the task of protecting the President. 

3The Willard was the premier hotel in Washington (and also one of the few decent places to stay.)
Unbeknownst to the conspirators, Lincoln would stay there as well, until after the inauguration when he could move into the White House.

4Perhaps the conspirators decided to wait until DeVoe and Sampson left Baltimore for Washington because they would be more anonymous there, and less likely to be recognized by anyone.

It Happened Here -- The Man Behind the 

Cast Iron Plow  

On rural roads across New York State a sure sign of spring, more certain than the appearance of Robins or the northward flight of Canada Geese, will be the appearance of tractors of all sizes towing plows of from three to umpteen blades.  Normally, we rural but non-farming residents don't give them much thought except to grumble about how slow they are going and how much of the road they are taking up.  Certainly they don't inspire the wonder and respect that the huge and complicated harvesters and other technological wonders of the farming industry. But for the first half of the nineteenth century farmer/inventors spent a lot of time thinking about ways to improve the plow. (Thomas Jefferson, in his retirement was one of these, and in fact, our inventor would correspond with him.)  Early wooden plows basically cut the soil and produced a furrow to plant in.  What was needed was a plow capable of cutting the soil and turning it over to allow plant residues to compost, to bring nutrients stored in plant roots to the surface where they would nourish young plants, to aerate the soil and to allow rain water to soak in.

In 1730 Joseph Foljambe of Rotherham England designed a  wooden plow with an iron coulter to split the soil and a moldboard sheathed in iron to turn it. Wrought iron plows  began to replace wooden plows. But wrought iron, being soft, regularly needed to be taken to the blacksmith to be sharpened and frequently needed to be welded (re-forged and hammered) when pieces broke. Conservative farm communities harbored fears that iron plows tended to poison the earth as well!
In 1780 Charles Newbold of Chesterfield, New Jersey produced the first cast iron plow in America. Cast iron was much harder than wrought iron, and did not need frequent sharpening but if it broke, it could not be welded and had to be recast. Significant improvements were made in 1803 when Robert Ransdom of Ipswich England produced a cast iron plow cast in three parts with a separate coulter, moldboard and plowshare (cutting edge).

Growing up in White Creek, south of Cambridge New York was young Jethro Wood.  Far removed from the improvements others were making, young Jethro was nevertheless obsessed with designing a better plow.  The story (perhaps apocryphal) was passed down of Jethro melting down a pewter cup and casting it into the form of a plow, then cutting buckles off a set of braces and with some scraps of leather fashioning a harness. The family cat was then pressed into service. The results of his experiment were not recorded but given his rather dubious choice of a draft animal his experiment
was probably not an unqualified success!  As a young man, Jethro Wood was often seen in his free moments with a knife and a block of wood cutting out patterns for prototypes for moldboards that would turn the soil without it sticking fast. Often he would use the soft but firm flesh of new potatoes for his carvings. His Dutch neighbors called him the "whittling Yankee".

Washington Co. Rte 68, Martindale Cors.

In 1799 the family moved to the town of Scipio in Cayuga County and the following year Jethro built a general store and went into business, but the dream of building a better plow was never far from his mind. In Scipio there was a great deal of interest in making a better plow. Three residents, of Scipio--Roswell Toulsby, Horace Pease and John Swan patented minor improvements to the plow.  In 1814 Wood joined them, obtaining his first patent.

Cayuga Co., Long Hill Rd, Poplar Ridge

 By 1819 he was in production, making his own plows and obtaining a second patent that described his moldboard design. The first pieces were cast in a foundry in Montville, on the outskirts of Moravia. Wood's cast iron plows were cast in four pieces. With a replaceable plowshare and moldboard, if part of the plow became dull or damaged it could be repaired in the field. Held together with interlocking pieces, key-ways and wedges, the components could be tapped apart with a hammer, then tapped back together again, unlike more complicated designs which used threaded bolts and nuts that could more easily rust and freeze together in heavy wet soil.  He began production of plows and soon his plows (and his competitors copies of his plows) came to dominate the field.  Wood made a great deal of money, but, over time, much of it was spent in futile court battles to defend his patents. Like Robert Fulton who discovered patent laws in the first quarter of the 19th century were inadequate to protect him from competitors copying his steamboat, Wood faced most of his competition from patent infringing imitators. In 1834 he died impoverished.

Cayuga Co. Rte 38A, Moravia*

In 1833, another former Yankee,  John Deere of Grand Detour, Illinois created the first polished steel plow, having observed that the steel tines of a hay fork tended to shed hay or manure cleanly. His steel, "self scouring" plows were a tremendous success, just when the Great Plains, with its tough prairie grasses were coming under cultivation. Deere became very wealthy,  creating a farm equipment company known world-wide.

Wood's Home, Long Hill Rd., Poplar Ridge

Jethro Wood marker, with a Wood-type plow

* Wood, himself, for many years believed he had made the first cast iron plow, but others had preceded him




Apologies to my regular followers of this Blog who have come to expect a post every 7 to 10 days. My internet connection has been down and I haven't taken the initiative to bestir myself from stove-side to go write at the nearest library or McDonalds to use their wi-fi.