On this day – January 23

On this day in in 1778, the Continental Congress appointed Marquis Lafayette to command the expedition to invade Canada with Maj. Gen. Thomas Conway (from the Conway cabal) and Brig. Gen. John Stark as his deputies, General Gates (the victorious General from Saratoga) wrote the orders on behalf of the Board of War, which reads: “Congress having thought proper … to appoint you to the Command of an Expedition meditated against Montreal it is the Wish of the Board that you would immediately repair to Albany, taking with you Lt. Colo. de Fleury, and such other gallant French officers as you think will be serviceable in an Enterprise in that Quarter…,” the invasion never happen; also on this day, General Gates wrote to George Washington about the Conway Cabal, which was a group of senior Continental Army officers in late 1777 and early 1778 who aimed to have George Washington replaced as commander-in-chief of the Army. unskillful effort to save himself and Conway, Gates had declared that the alleged statement was “in word as well as substance a wicked forgery,” when informed that it had come into circulation through General Wilkinson (also at Saratoga), Gates wanted him punished for committing a crime of the first magnitude writing, “”Brigr Genl Wilkinson returned to Albany, I informed him of the Treachery which had been Committed, but, I concealed from him the Measures I was persuing, to unmask the Author. Wilkinson answered he was assured it never would come to light, & endeavoured to fix my Suspicions on Lieut. Colonel Troup, who, said he, ‘might have incautiously Conversed on the Substance of General Conway’s Letter with Colonel Hamilton, whom you had Sent, not long before, to Albany;‘” in 1871, the extreme cold had the mercury ranged 16 degrees below Zero and the severe cold continued for three day; in 1893, Charles Bristol was named cashier at Schuylerville National Bank; in 1933, the USS Saratoga was in Hawaii for fleet exercises for a little over a month; in 1961, the USS Saratoga was deployed with the Sixth Fleet, a serious fire broke out in Saratoga’s number two machinery space which took seven lives, the fire, believed caused by a ruptured fuel oil line, was brought under control by the crew, and the ship proceeded to Athens where a survey of the damage could be made; in 2004, a retirement party was held for supervisor Bob Hall and clerk Jean Casey; and in 2015, the Daily Gazette reported on “two brothers from the Curtis Lumber empire will face each other in court next month in a tenant-landlord dispute over the company’s stores in Schuylerville and Hoosick Falls … Curtis Lumber leases the Schuylerville site from Saratoga Lumber Traders … the Schuylerville lease is for $5,000 per month … the Schuylerville location is 42,000 square feet with $3.3 million in building materials inventory.”

On this day is a chronological timetable of events that occurred on this day in history around the Town of Saratoga.  Discover what happened today in local history by following us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/historiantosaratoga/

(Thank you to Deputy Historian Patricia Peck for compiling information for this timetable.)

January 23

Advertisements

OTD: BURGOYNE BUREAU ENTERTAINMENT SET FRIDAY NIGHT

On this date, at this time, there was a public social affair at the Grange Hall in Quaker Springs.   

The Saratogian reported on 18 January 1937 :

Schuylerville— The Old Burgoyne Home Bureau Unit will hold a public social affair combined with an amateur contest and card playing at 8 pm Friday in the Grange Hall in Quaker Springs.  

Prizes for the contest and for cards will be given. Five hundred card euchre will be played. The amateur program is not completed, 

Anyone in the vicinity having talent is invited to participate. Notification should be made by telephone or mall to Mrs. E. D. Hathaway.

A number of amateurs already have been signed. Persons attend are asked to bring cards.

The article also describes the activity of a Home Bureau.  Home Bureaus were established across New York State in the early twentieth century in order to provide new information on household economics and management. Earlier this month there was a blog on the Wagman’s Ridge Home Bureau – https://historianatsaratoga.wordpress.com/2018/01/13/otd-home-bureau-meet-on-wagmans-ridge-2/ 

Littauer in the Journal of Higher Education

#Inthismonth in 1946, Lucius Littauer, who served as a Congressman for Saratoga (4 March 1897- 3 March 1907) was mentioned in the The Reporter, The Journal of Higher Education Jan 1936.

A gift of $2,000,000 for the establishment of a graduate school of administration is announced by Harvard. The Donor is Lucius N. Lattauer, a New York City manufacturer. Mr. Lattauer’s purpose in making the gift is the promotion of the “science and art of government administration,” and the improvement of “public administration – national, state, and local- for the welfare of out people.

But there is more to the story “In the early 20th century, the very idea of a professional public-service graduate school drew the ire of faculty stalwarts who’d already endured the establishment of the business school. College brass worried that such an enterprise, even more so than Harvard Business School, would dumb down their own scholarship. If not for an unprecedented $2 million donation—the largest from a single donor in the university’s history at that time—from a Harvard alum named Lucius Littauer during the height of the Depression, there may have never been a Harvard Kennedy School.

Littauer, who’d made his fortune as a businessman after inheriting his father’s glove-making empire, had an ax to grind with the government. After serving five terms as a right-wing congressman from New York—and somehow managing to elude serving a jail sentence following a conviction for smuggling a diamond tiara into the country in 1914—Littauer emerged as an outspoken critic of DC, particularly the New Deal.

Behind his record-setting gift to Harvard was an anti-government edict that today reads like a precursor to the Tea Party. Citing the “growing invasion of government into every aspect of our nation’s life,” Littauer offered his bequest as “the best hope of avoiding disasters arising from untried experiments in government and administration.” according to a Boston Magazine article (Feb 2017) http://bit.ly/2iV2nGK

Lattauer was Saratoga’s Representative to Congress (4 March 1897- 3 March 1907). He was born in Gloversville, Fulton County, NY on 20 January 1859. He graduated from Harvard University in 1878 and engaged in the manufacture of gloves in Gloversville. He was an officer and director of many commercial and financial institutions including the Adirondack Trust Company. He served as regent of the University of the State of New York from 1912-1914. After retirement he devoted his energies to education, medical research, and philanthropic work. He died at his country home near New Rochelle, N.Y., on 2 March 1944.

In 1901, Littauer traveled to Schuylerville with a group of fiscal experts on a tour of inspection of the Hudson Valley Railway Company. On this trip, was Congressman James Sherman (24 October 1855 – 30 October 1912), who went on to become the 27th Vice President of the United States (1909–12), and banker Benjamin Strong, Jr. (22 December 1872 – 16 October 1928), who went on to be the first Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Saratoga has been defined by the people who by choice or by chance make up this community. There are many individuals like Lucius Nathan Littauer that help define this country and our region. It is the determination of our forefathers, in surmounting overwhelming odds that help define the American spirit – the will and ability to shape a better future. It is the people it is that define this community by choice or by chance have changed this country and even the world political development. That is why studying the people of Saratoga is integral to a good understanding of the condition of being human.

On this day – January 22

On this day in 1778, the Continental Congress resolved “That an irruption be made into Canada, and that the Board of War be authorized to take every necessary measure for the execution of the business, under such general officers as Congress shall appoint, and apply for such sums of money as may be thought by them proper and requisite for the expedition;” in 1782, Alexander and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton’s first child, Philip, was born, (Philip would be killed in a duel in 1801 in Weehawken, New Jersey); in 1800, Alexander Hamilton wrote to his sister-in-law Angelica Church, “Your sister Margaret is also wonderfully restored, She and [her husband] Mr. Rensselaer supped with us, She never was in better spirits;” in 1877, General J. Watts DePeyster gave an address before the New York Historical Society, and entitled “Major General Schuyler and the Burgoyne Campaign, in the summer of 1777:” in 1890, Rev. J. Heffernan, pastor of the Church of Visitation called at 5:15 in the morning, when the rectory of the church burned, the blaze was out at 7 a.m. with a loss of $6,000; in 1904, John A. Milligan was born, he was described as the best baseball player ever from this community, he played baseball at Cornell University (Class of 1928), then the Philadelphia Phillies (1928-1931) and the Washington Senators (1934), he taught pilots during World War 2 in Florida; he passed away on 15 May 1972 in Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Florida; in 1970, the USS Saratoga returned to Mayport and the Florida coast; and in 2005, Rev. Walter de Velder passed away, he was a lifelong missionary of the Reformed Church in America to China, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan, born on 17 May 1907 in Boyden, Iowa, as a missionary his life were often filled with danger, in 1944 he became a refugees and were flown over the Himalayas into India by the 14th Air Force of Chennault’s Flying Tigers, at the end of WWII in 1945 he was asked to reopen the English Reformed Church in Amsterdam, Netherlands which had been used by the German navy during the war years, eventually returning to China, they were once again forced to leave when the Communists took power in 1949, in the community he is best known as being the father of David de Velder.

On this day is a chronological timetable of events that occurred on this day in history around the Town of Saratoga. Discover what happened today in local history by subscribing to our blog at https://historianatsaratoga.wordpress.com/

(Thank you to Deputy Historian Patricia Peck for compiling information for this timetable.)

January 22

Hudson River Speedway

The Hudson River Speedway was a 1950’s stock car track was located beside the Hudson River and US 4 at Garnsey’s trucking. The Paul Garnsey family owned and ran the speedway. The Hudson River Speedway is an important part of our community’s 1950s landscape. The race track was located outside of the villages. Automobiles were the entertainment and the form the transportation to this social destination. In the post war recovery years, optimism pervaded the national attitude. Sports car racing was very popular with many tracks in Eastern New York and nearby Vermont. It is not known why the track ceases operations but American tastes changed. In late 1950s’, television sets had become affordable and with it less people venture out of their homes for entertainment. Times were good and people traveled. Automobiles began to reshape patterns of tourism. Riverside cottages and campsites multiplied as tourists took their vacations in the family car. The thrills of auto racing are no longer part of our community. It was a moment in time that was well thought of by the participants.

Hudson River Speedway

The Hudson River Speedway was a 1950’s stock car track was located beside the Hudson River and US 4 at Garnsey’s trucking. The Paul Garnsey family owned and ran the speedway. The Hudson River Speedway is an important part of our community’s 1950s landscape. The race track was located outside of the villages. Automobiles were the entertainment and the form the transportation to this social destination. In the post war recovery years, optimism pervaded the national attitude. Sports car racing was very popular with many tracks in Eastern New York and nearby Vermont. It is not known why the track ceases operations but American tastes changed. In late 1950s’, television sets had become affordable and with it less people venture out of their homes for entertainment. Times were good and people traveled. Automobiles began to reshape patterns of tourism. Riverside cottages and campsites multiplied as tourists took their vacations in the family car. The thrills of auto racing are no longer part of our community. It was a moment in time that was well thought of by the participants.

Martin Luther King

Today, as we honor Martin Luther King Day, it is on this day we look at the tie a Schuylerville native had with the King family.

Martin Luther King Day is an federal holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. The day is observed on the third Monday of January each year, which is around King’s birthday, January 15.

Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr., 15 January 1929 – 4 April 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience based on his Christian beliefs. In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People’s Campaign. He was assassinated on 4 April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

It is hard to find a tie from a small town like Saratoga to such a national leader in the civil rights movement. However, there is one.

Schuylerville native, Joseph Canzeri, (16 May 1930 – 22 November 2004) organized King’s funeral. Joseph Canzeri, was a colorful advance man for Governor Rockefeller in the 1960s and 1970s who later worked in the Reagan White House doing everything from arranging seating on Air Force One to directing traffic in white tie and tails according to the New York Sun.

Canzeri was tasked with organizing the King funeral by Governor Nelson Rockerfeller. He arranged to have the mule-drawn cart carry the casket through the streets of Altanta, GA. Canzeri also organized the funerals of Rockefeller and Robert F. Kennedy.

Canzeri was a native of Schuylerville, N.Y., he studied hotel management at Paul Smith College before being hired in the 1950s by Nelson Rockefeller to manage the huge family estate at Pocantico Hills. One of his main duties was moving trees. As Rockefeller angled for public office, Canzeri became his advance man, flying ahead to make arrangements.

Saratoga has been defined by the people who by choice or by chance make up this community. There are many individuals like Joseph Canzeri that help define this country, our region, and this community. It is the determination of our forefathers, in surmounting overwhelming odds that help define the American spirit – the will and ability to shape a better future. It is the people it is that define this community by choice or by chance have changed this country and even the world. That is why studying the people of Saratoga is integral to a good understanding of the condition of being human.