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March 19, 2024

this story starts in 1915

Jim Kaplan who keeps us up to date on New York City history

Episode 306-Controversy has developed involving American Revolution advocate Thomas Paine and neglect of historic sites dedicated to Paine’s memory in New Rochelle in Westchester County. New Rochelle resident and historian Jim Kaplan explains the issue. Kaplan was author of an essay on the subject in the New York History Blog. First posted in 2020.

33 degrees and light snow, are you kidding, in The City of Amsterdam at 6:12AM-Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, March 19, 2024-A chance of snow showers before noon, then a slight chance of snow showers after 5pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 41. West wind 13 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Tonight A chance of snow showers, mainly after 7pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 30. Wednesday A chance of rain and snow showers before noon, then rain showers likely between noon and 4pm, then rain and snow showers likely after 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 44. West wind 8 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

End of the month on The Historians

Friday, March 29, 2024-Episode 418-Bruce Dearstyne is encouraging New Yorkers to celebrate April 20 as the birthday of the Empire State.  The first New York State constitution was adopted April 20, 1777 during the Revolutionary War.  Bruce Dearstyne was formerly on the staff of the Office of State History and the State Archives.  He has written extrnsively on New York State history.

A Tuesday Story

Bean Hill Congressman corresponded with town of Florida soldier
By Bob Cudmore

William T. Byrne, who was elected a State Senator and Congressman representing the Albany area, was born in 1876 on Bean Hill Road near the hamlet of Minaville. Although Byrne lived in Loudonville in later years, he maintained a summer home in the town of Florida, south of Amsterdam.

Debbie Miller wrote, "My dad Ronald Hopkins grew up in the town of Florida and from what I understood, Byrne was a wonderful mentor to my father throughout his childhood. While my Dad was serving in the Air Force (1951), Representative Byrne and my Dad corresponded regularly."

Miller added, "From a letter I found (1946), Mr. Byrne would mail my Dad magazines and books when he was young to encourage reading. They would also correspond with one another so that my Dad could practice composing letters and good penmanship."

She continued, "Mr. Byrne seemed like a kind man who inspired the youngsters in the town of Florida to get a good education and to also lead an honorable life. In his letter, he mentioned that good habits and keeping good company will pay big returns which he knows from experience. I'm sure Byrne influenced many other youngsters and aside from his political career accomplishments, I believe he should be recognized for his outstanding character."

After Air Force service in the military police in the Korean War, Ronald Hopkins, Miller's father, raised a family and built a career as an engineering designer and manager at Beech Nut-Life Savers. He died at 81 in 2014.

Byrne's parents were Richard Henry Byrne, a carpenter, and Margaret Manifold Byrne, a school teacher. Both were Irish immigrants. When William was a youngster, the family moved to Albany where his father operated a tavern on Broadway.

A graduate of Albany High and Albany Law School, Byrne attended the 1896 Democratic national convention in Chicago where William Jennings Bryan delivered his famous Cross of Gold speech opposing the gold standard. Byrne also became proficient as a public speaker.

Back in Albany Byrne developed a lucrative law practice. He ran as a Democrat and was elected to the State Senate in 1922. He was part of the Democratic Party machine headed by Dan O'Connell.

A liberal and associate of Governors Al Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Byrne was co-sponsor of state legislation that created unemployment insurance.

Byrne and his wife Josephine lived in Loudonville in a house now on the National Historic Register. They had a summer home on Bean Hill in the town of Florida. A devotee of exercise, Byrne sometimes walked to Bean Hill from his Loudonville home.

The Byrnes's summer home was adjacent to the Amsterdam YMCA farm called Camp On-A-Nol. Byrnes struck up a friendship with the family of YMCA physical director Leon "Prof" Huston and his family.

Byrne knew a breeder of spaniel dogs and arranged for a dog to be shipped by train to the Hustons. The family named the dog Senator, "Sen" for short. The Hustons moved for a YMCA assignment in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1942 where Senator the dog was struck and killed by a car.

By then Byrne was serving in Congress, first elected in 1936. When notified of Senator's death, Congressman Byrne shipped another spaniel to the Hustons. They named the new dog Representative, "Rep" for short.

Byrne's wife Josephine Diener Byrne was hostess at many gatherings at their summer home. She died in 1948. They were married for forty years and had no children.

Congressman Byrne died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1952. He was eulogized as the "genial gentleman from Albany" by future U.S. Senator Jacob Javits.

Historians "back on the Radio" Saturday, April 6, 2024

The Historians Podcast is heard at Noon Saturday on WCSS, 1490 AM, 106.9 FM in Amsterdam and WKAJ, 1120 AM, 97.9 FM in St. Johnsville.  Note: WCSS preempts Historians Podcast when the station broadcasts college basketball games.

Mohawk Valley News The Daily Gazette, The Recorder News, The Leader-Herald and Nippertown. https://www.dailygazette.om/c

New owners announce Cappie's Drive-In will reopen on Friday, April 5, 2024
Ashley Onyon

 

March 15, 2024

Bill Simons

Friday, March 15, 2024-Episode 513-Actor Kirk Douglas died four years ago at age 103. Emeritus history professor Bill Simons from SUNY Oneonta has done extensive research on the life of Amsterdam native Kirk Douglas and tells the story of visiting the actor’s childhood home.

March 08, 2024

Charles Postel

....San Francisco State University history professor Charles Postel is author of Equality: An American Dilemma 1866-1896. In this edit of Episode 286, Postel compares three important social movements: Knights of Labor, Women’s Christian Temperance Union and farmers’ Grange.

March 01, 2024

Mark Silo

Friday, March 2, 2024-Episode 512- British colonist William Johnson “made his bones” by defeating a French army who attacked his army at Lake George in 1755. King George II made Johnson a baronet, “Sir” William Johnson. Parliament awarded Johnson 5,000 pounds. Historian Mark Silo tells the story with commentary from Old Fort Johnson site manager Scott Haefner.

February 23, 2024

Ghosts of Segregation

Episode 511-Photojournalist Richard Frishman and essayist and professor Dr. B. Brian Foster are authors of Ghosts of Segregation, a photojournalism collection depicting a visual history of segregation through buildings and landscapes where racism has left its mark.

February 16, 2024

Terry Golway

Former Albany Politico bureau chief Terry Golway is author of I Never Did like Politics: How Fiorello La Guardia Became America's Mayor, and Why He Still Matters. Golway tells the story of LaGuardia’s life through colorful episodes that relate to people today.

February 09, 2024

HighLights Edition 1-2024

Episode 509-Highlights Edition from 2023 and 2024 with excerpts from podcasts on Civil War volunteers from Saratoga, the story of Benedict Arnold, an ancient elephant tusk found in Maine and much more

February 02, 2024

Jerry Madden

Friday, February 2, 2024-Episode 508-Jerry Madden discusses his historical novel Steel Valley: Coming of Age in the Ohio Valley in the 1960s. Madden sets his story in Rust Belt in cities like Steubenville, Ohio, where steel mills have moved out.

January 12, 2024

Bruce Luyendyk

Bruce Luyendyk is a geologist and author of Mighty Bad Land, the story of his explorations of Marie Byrd Land in Antarctica in the 1990s, These explorations led to the discovery of a new continent, named Zealandia.

January 05, 2024

Gary Hoyle

Gary Hoyle is author of Mystery Tusk, the story of a 12,000 year old woolly mammoth tusk found in a manmade pond in Maine in 1959. Plus the chronicle of an African elephant, Old Bet, shot and killed in the early 1800s in Maine.

December 29, 2023

Chris Carola

Chris Carola, a former Albany based Associated Press reporter who lives in Saratoga Springs, talks to Bob about the Civil War’s 77th New York State Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

December 22, 2023

Amy Godine

....The Black Woods by Amy Godine chronicles the history of Black pioneers in New York's northern wilderness. From the late 1840s into the 1860s, they migrated to the Adirondacks to build farms and to vote. On their new-worked land, they could meet the $250 property requirement New York's constitution imposed on Black voters in 1821, and claim the rights of citizenship.

December 15, 2023

Jack D. Warren Jr.

Friday, December 15, 2023-Episode 503- Jack Warren is author of FREEDOM: The Enduring Importance of the American Revolution. Freedom is a look into British America, the Revolutionary War, the birth of a new nation, what freedom means, and how the events of the past are important even today.

December 08, 2023

Jack Kelly

Friday, December 8, 2023-Episode 502-Jack Kelly is author of God Save Benedict Arnold. Arnold committed treason. Yet he was more than a turncoat—Kelly argues Arnold’s achievements during the early years of the Revolutionary War defined him as the most successful soldier of the era.

December 01, 2023

Tim Keogh

Friday, December 1, 2023-Episode 501-Tim Keogh, author of In Levittown's Shadow: Poverty in America's Wealthiest Postwar Suburb. Keogh found that attics, basements, and sheds housed the poor during the suburban boom that followed World War II.

November 24, 2023

Dana Cudmore

Friday, November 24, 2023-Episode 500-Dana Cudmore, author of Farming with Dynamite. Before the introduction of concrete in the early 1900s, cut stones were used to build impressive structures such as churches, public buildings and homes. Cudmore documents more than 30 stone quarries across Schoharie County where dynamite was used to get large stones from the land.

November 17, 2023

Cosby Gibson/Tom Staudle/World Songs

Friday, November 17, 2023-Episode 499-Cosby Gibson and Tom Staudle with songs from Hanukkah, Kwanza and other year end holidays.

November 10, 2023

Jim Kaplan

Friday, November 10, 2023-Episode 498-Jim Kaplan on Revolutionary War General Horatio Gates. American commander in the key victory over the British in the Battle of Saratoga, Gates’ reputation suffered at the end of the war. He later moved to New York City and helped elect Thomas Jefferson as President in 1800.

November 03, 2023

Focus on History #3 for 2023

Several topics from Bob Cudmore’s Focus on History newspaper column: Amsterdam NY’s connection to Piscotta, Italy; carper mill tales; union Leader Leonora Barry. Plus an interview with Phillip Malcolm Bowler about his ancestors’ brewery in Amsterdam.

October 20, 2023

David Pietrusza

Friday, October 20, 2023-Episode 496-David Pietrusza with a guided tour of organized crime in the 1920s in New York City, Gangsterland.

October 06, 2023

David Brooks

Friday, October 6, 2023-Episode 495-David Brooks with an insightful look at the 115th New York Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War. The regiment was composed of men from Montgomery, Fulton, Saratoga and Hamilton Counties. Commanded by Simeon Sammons the troops went to war from Fonda. Brooks is a member of the board of the Fulton County Historical Society.

September 29, 2023

HighLights Edition 5

Episode 494-Highlights edition #5-Christopher Gorham with the story of FDR aide Anna Rosenberg; Gregg Ficery tracing the origin of the National Football League; Scott Shane chronicling the life of Thomas Smallwood, an African American who named the Underground Railroad and interviews from the 2015 Fort Plan Museum conference on the American Revolution.

September 22, 2023

Scott Shane

Episode 493-Scott Shane, author of Flee North- A forgotten hero and the fight for freedom in slavery’s borderland. The book traces the life of Thomas Smallwood, an African American who named the Underground Railroad.

September 15, 2023

Charles Yaple

Friday, September 15, 2023-Episode 492-Episode 493-Charles Yaple, Professor Emeritus at SUNY Cortland, has written Jacob’s Land, a history of his immigrant family in New York State in the 1700s. Yaple has also written The Tree of Us following men, from Richford, New York, including John D. Rockefeller, once the world’s richest man, and Gurdon Wallace Wattle, a friend to five U.S. presidents.
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