Before the 20th century, the upper Hudson River was used commercially as a conduit to ship timber logs downstream to the paper mills along the river.  Logs were stored in pens until the spring melt in the upper Hudson region significantly increased the flow of the river. When the flow rate was right, the pens were opened and the logs were sent careening downstream to the mills.  The Sacandaga River joins the Hudson River at Hadley, with each river providing approximately equal flows.  The watershed of the Sacandaga River alone is approximately 1000 square miles, so the melt of the winter snowfall could provide a large amount of runoff.

Each spring, the flow of the Hudson would increase significantly, but periodically there would be a combination of warm temperatures, high local rainfall, and a large snow cover to produce extraordinary runoff over a short amount of time, called a freshet.   Flooding was also a major concern to the paper mills and other businesses along the river, causing severe economic dislocation 

For almost 300 years floods had devastated the upper Hudson from Luzerne to Albany and points south, as recounted in Munsell’s Annals of Albany, 1850

April 30-May 3, 1639 “Whilst I was at Fort Orange, the 30th of April, there was such a high flood at the island on which Brand-pylen lived, – who was my host at this time – that we were compelled to leave the island, and go with boats into the house, where there were four feet of water. This flood continued three days, before we could use the dwelling again. The water ran into the fort and we were compelled to repair to the woods, where we erected tents and kindled large fires.” – Description of the Hudson flood of 1639 by a visitor to Albany named DeVrie

March, 1646. “The winter which had just terminated, was remarkably long and severe. The North (Hudson) River closed at Rensselaerswyk, on the 24th November, and remained frozen some four months. A very high freshet, unequalled since 1639, followed, which destroyed a number of horses in their stables; nearly carried away the fort, and inflicted considerable other damage in the colonie.

March,1790. Flooding on the Hudson River, as described by the Albany Register for March 29, 1790, was initiated by a week of heavy rains. “The weather for a week past being uncommonly moderate, and attended with considerable falls of rain and some slight snows, raised the river to such a degree on Saturday last, completely to carry off the ice; and as by accounts from Poughkeepsie, &c. the river has been some time since clear.

March,1818. This flood appears to have been quite sizeable according to Munsell. “The water rose to great height in the river the night of the 3d March, so that several families in Church St. would have perished if they had not been rescued. The water was two feet deep in the bar room of the Eagle Tavern, on the southeast corner of South Market and Hamilton streets. Sloops were thrown upon the dock, and the horse ferry boat was driven about half way up to Pearl Street. A family occupied a house on the island opposite the city, who were rescued by the people of Bath. So great a freshet had not been known in forty years.”

Flooding continued on a regular basis, but 1913 was to prove the turning point. At Fort Edward -the highest recorded flood level – 34 feet – was reached on March 14, 1913 causing general devastation in the area . The floods waters were severe enough that year to wash out the bridge connecting Glens Falls and South Glens Falls.  The bridge fell on March 27, 1913 at 9:55 p.m.  This flow rate caused major flooding to the downstream communities of Glens Falls, Waterford, Green Island, Cohoes, Rensselaer and Albany.

There were enough similar events, loss of property, and damage to infrastructure that the communities and businesses along the Hudson River asked the New York State Legislature to take action to control the water flow.  These organizations and municipalities provided the funds to build the reservoir as a water storage facility. 

As a result of the 1913 flood, the Legislature passed the Burd Amendment allowing the use of 3% of the New York State Forest Preserve for the purpose of creating reservoirs to regulate stream flow. In 1922 the Legislature formed the Hudson River Regulating District. The purpose of the Regulating District was  “to regulate the flow of the Hudson and Sacandaga Rivers as required by the public welfare including health and safety.” In 1927 construction began on the  Conklingville Dam. The dam was completed three years later and the flooding of the reservoir began March 27, 1930. After almost 300 years It took the major flooding of March, 1913 to finally get the Legislature to move forward on authorizing the building of the Sacandaga Reservoir.

Fred Wilhelm is a retired General Electric engineer who lives along Great Sacandaga Lake. He has an interest in not only how the Lake was built and controlled, but WHY it was built-in the first place. 

1898 was a great year to be an American, a New Yorker, and resident of the historic village of Schuylerville in eastern Saratoga County.  That year Schuylerville had “a metropolitan appearance” on St. Patrick’s Day with bands, drum corps and 600 marching men. 

Today, Schuylerville is not particularly known for its Irish community.  The village is like much of upstate New York where the ethnic groups have all assimilated.  But that was not the case 120 years ago. the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) organized a parade under the auspices of the local Schuylerville area division which was embraced by the entire community. 

The AOH is America’s oldest Irish Catholic Fraternal Organization founded concurrently in the coal-mining region of Pennsylvania and New York City in 1836.  The AOH was created to protect the clergy and churches from the violent American Nativists who attacked Irish Catholic immigrants and Church property.  At the same time, the vast influx of Irish Immigrants fleeing Ireland’s Great Hunger in the late 1840’s, prompted a growth in many Irish societies – the largest of which was, and continues to be, the AOH.  Active across the Saratoga county and region, AOH aided the newly arrived Irish, both socially and economically.  The newcomers could meet some of ‘their own’ and are introduced to the social atmosphere of the Irish American community.

The Schuylerville area supported this parade.  The recently elected village President (Mayor) James Mealey arranged for the local scrapper to clean the dirt streets (during mud season).  The residents of Schuylerville, Victory and Smithville decorated their business and residents “in a fine manner” with the green flag of Ireland intermingled with the Stars and Stripes.  These and other decorations “presented a very handsome appearance.” 

The various AOH divisions arrived in Schuylerville in large numbers.  The Saratoga Springs division arrived by special train with 100 members and were headed by the 77th Regimental Band.  This was composed of military personnel from Fulton, Essex and Saratoga Counties who fought in the Civil War. The group banded together in 1872 as part of the Survivors Association of the Seventy-Seventh Regiment, New York State Infantry Volunteers of 1861-65. These musicians kept alive the memories they had experienced together during the war and the band flourished into the early 1900s.

The Corinth division joined their brothers from Saratoga Springs with 80 men and the Palmer Falls band with Glens Falls’ cornet player A. D. Wilson.  To the south, Mechanicville and Stillwater AOH divisions turned out 112 men arriving by a special train and led by the H. D. Safford’s band.  H. D. Safford was the manager of a success Mechanicville based cornet band that performed for about 25 years starting about 1887. 

The Greenwich division in neighboring Washington County with 60 members accompanied by the splendid Wm. Walker drum corps arrived in a convoy of carriages.  This drum corps was originally from East Greenwich and they started in 1896 with 16 musicians and performed for about a decade. 

The final unit in the parade was the 60 members of the Schuylerville area division led by the Victory Cornet band which was the pride of the community and performed all over the area for over 55 years. 

There were 645 train tickets sold from Saratoga Springs to Schuylerville.  The crowd for the parade was over 3,000 from out of town.  The parade formed on lower Broad street at Burgoyne street.  The parade route was just under five miles snaking the parade (long by today’s standards) through the villages of Schuylerville, Victory, hamlet of Smithville, back to Victory, into the Town of Saratoga and back to the start in Schuylerville.  The parade was led by Grand Marshall Frank McDonnell and ended with the village fathers and town officials in carriages. 

This AOH event in Schuylerville completed the day with a banquet and program at the Opera House on Broad Street. The program included nine songs, a recitation and a lecture from a Priest based in Greenwich. Rev. Morrison ended his lecture with “The motto was – and let it be ever yours also – ‘always and everywhere faithful.’ Yes, faithful to your God, faithful to your religion, faithful to your country.  Your duty then is to this country and her interests, patriotism, and humanity.  Aspire to do the work of patriots and of good men, and God will bless the results.”

.I am sure it was not lost on those gathered that they were meeting in Schuylerville where in 1777 for the first time in world history a complete British army surrendered and that they were at the location where the words written in the Declaration of Independence were made a great fact for all mankind. 

The Schuylerville Standard described “a better appearing, better dressed and more intelligent looking lot of men would be hard to find than the organization in line St. Patrick’s Day.  It was a credit to all concerned and Old Schuylerville will always have a warm welcome for the AOH.” 

There is still an A.O.H. Division in Saratoga County – the Commodore John Barry Division #1 in Saratoga Springs which can be found at Saratogaaoh.com.

Sean Kelleher is the historian for the town of Saratoga, New York. He writes a daily blog at https://historianatsaratoga.wordpress.com/. He is a board member of the Saratoga County History Center. Sean was a member of the New York State French and Indian War 250th Anniversary Commemoration Commission. He can be reached by email at historiantosaratoga@gmail.com.

Beginning in the early 1860s, break-ins began taking place at businesses across Saratoga County. The method was always the same, an office was entered and the safe was emptied and then relocked. The only outward evidence of theft being the owners’ inability to open the safe. When expert locksmiths were called, they often could not reopen the safe.

At this point, the business would turn to a local man well-known for solving such problems, Nelson M. Knickerbacker. Inevitably his skill would prevail, though always revealing the loss of any valuables the safe had contained. Knickerbacker was born in December of 1844 in Saratoga Springs. He was one of ten children of Peter & Violetta Knickerbacker of that city. By the age of 22, he had established himself as a jeweler but then sold his business in 1866.

Henry L. West’s store in Ballston Spa was the next to be hit. Knickerbacker, who had been employed by West on occasion over the previous five years, was present when the store closed on the night of the burglary. Knickerbacker quickly became the prime suspect and was arrested on June 6, 1868. As he was not considered a risk of leaving the area he was released on bail.

Eight months after Knickerbacker was released on bail, the safe at the Saratoga Springs jewelry store of E. R. Waterbury was found to be inoperable. After two days of unsuccessful efforts by professional locksmiths, Knickerbacker was called. He quickly opened the safe, revealing that gold watches, diamonds, and jewels worth several thousand dollars had been removed. A short time later another Saratoga Springs jewelry store was robbed in a similar manner, the owner John Frost also reporting a substantial loss.

At his trial, the accused’s comparatively weak defense did little against the prosecution’s overwhelming evidence. Knickerbacker denied being involved in the crime, backed by his mother’s claim that she was “certain that he was home” the night of the robbery. Others who spoke on Knickerbacker’s behalf were boyhood friends whose testimony was summed up with “his character was always good up to the time of this charge.”

The jury quickly returned a verdict of guilty. On June 29, 1869, Nelson M. Knickerbacker was sentenced to five years of hard labor at Clinton Prison in Dannemora for burglary and larceny. Through the efforts of friends, his sentence was commuted to two years and eight months and he was released on February 28, 1872. The prison incorrectly reported his last name as Knickerbocker.

Either immediately before sentencing or while in prison, Nelson married Phebe Sadler, his bride living with her parents in Saratoga Springs while he was in prison. After his release from prison, Nelson and Phebe moved to Milton, Saratoga County. Knickerbacker returned to the jewelry business, opening a store in Ballston Spa. As his business prospered, he moved his family to the village.

In what was later called “alarming frequency,” safes were again found inoperable in Ballston Spa and the surrounding area. As an acknowledged expert, Nelson Knickerbacker would often be called to make the repairs. Charging twenty-five dollars for his work, the safe when opened would be empty.

Throughout his years in Ballston Spa, Nelson Knickerbacker was known as a gentleman of good habits with a family who was highly regarded in the community. Even with his previous criminal background, it was this perception by the town’s citizens that kept quiet the suspicions of his involvement in the crime wave.

The mystery safecracker was finally revealed on a cold winter night in December 1890. That evening, Richard Cunningham entered the ax and scythe factory at the northern edge of Ballston Spa to fill the woodstove. He was surprised to find that his key would not fit in the lock. Finally forcing the door open, he was startled to see Nelson Knickerbacker standing in the office. The intruder explained that he had seen a man leave and had entered to investigate. The police were summoned and Knickerbacker was taken into custody. On his person were found a loaded five-barrel pepper-box revolver, a dark lantern, and a set of hand tools.

In May of 1891, Knickerbacker was found guilty of an attempt to commit a burglary in the third degree. The jury’s recommendation for mercy was denied and he was sentenced to two years and six months of hard labor. His daughters, Gertrude and Maude, cried hysterically while he was sentenced and led away. After his release, he returned to Ballston Spa and his family where he again took up his profession as a jeweler.  Nelson M. Knickerbacker died of pneumonia in 1914 at the age of 69 and was interred in Gansevoort, Saratoga County. 

Dave Waite has had a lifelong interest in New York State and Adirondack history. His research has been published by historical organizations across upstate New York.  His most recent article “With Energy and Success, Thorp & Sprague’s Mohawk Valley Stage Line,” is featured in the Winter 2021 New York Archives Magazine. David’s email is davidwaitefinearts@gmail.com 

The Great Awakening was a wave of increased religious enthusiasm led by evangelical Protestant ministers that first swept through the American Colonies in the 1730s. It made Christianity intensely personal to the average person by fostering a deep sense of spiritual conviction and by encouraging introspection and a commitment to a new standard of personal morality. While the Great Awakening was very effective in reviving religion, the emotion burned out quickly after the first generation and there was much “back sliding.”  So in the 1820s conditions were ripe for what became the Second Great Awakening. They were particularly ripe in Malta. 

A “moral wild” and a “waste place” were among the terms used by churchmen of the time to describe Malta in the early nineteenth century. (If you think that is bad, wait till your hear what they said of Stillwater). Religious life in Malta at the time was described as “a very small Methodist church in one corner of the town, and two or three of God’s children in another corner, there was neither piety nor prayer, no means of grace nor desire of salvation.”

Redemption, however, came to Malta in the person of Rev. Asahel Nettleton, a well-known revivalist from Connecticut. Few have heard of Nettleton today but he was the Billy Graham of the 1820s, his name familiar in every New England household.  It has been estimated that more than 30,000 converts responded to his call.

In the summer of 1819, Nettleton’s ministry shifted from Connecticut to the Saratoga area. Although he came for a rest and to restore his failing health, local ministers pressed him into service.  A “Mr. Hunter” was credited with persuading him of the need to start in Malta. Responding to this call, Nettleton preached to crowds estimated to be as large as 1,400 in Malta.  To put that in perspective, the population of the town in the 1820 Census was 1,518.  People came from Stillwater, Galway, Ballston and Saratoga.  It was estimated that he was responsible for over 600 converts during the seven months he spent in Saratoga County before moving on to Union College in Schenectady where he led another successful revival with the assistance of Dr. Eliphelet Nott, the famous president of the college.

Ministers came to Malta to see what was going on. What they saw so impressed them that they carried the revival spirit back with them to their own towns and villages so the rival flourished in Saratoga, Stillwater, Ballston, Galway and Charlton and many other smaller places.

And it was not a moment too soon for those sinners in Stillwater who were described as “boatmen, tipplers, tavern haunters, gamblers, infidels and atheists”. What was going on in Stillwater?  In 1817, the State had begun digging both the Erie and the Champlain Canals with the latter passing through the Town of Stillwater. The work attracted rough, mostly Irish and Catholic immigrants, to an area that had known few immigrants before the canal project. Nettleton preached there on February 27, 1820 and reported that “one hundred and three publicly presented themselves a living sacrifice to the Lord; and about one hundred more rejoicing in hope, and expect soon to follow their example.” 

The revival was so significant that the Albany Presbytery appointed a special committee to investigate the matter.  It stated in part: “From the very commencement of his (Rev. Nettleton) labors, the work of the Lord’s spirit became more powerful and rapidly progressive. It was but a little while until weeping and anxious distress were found in almost every house; the inhabitants of sin; the families of discord; the haunts of intemperance; the strongholds of error; the retreat of pharisaic pride; the entrenchments of self-righteousness, were all equally penetrated by the power of the Holy Ghost.  It commenced there in Malta, and with such display of the power of God’s spirit in crushing the opposition of the natural heart to everything holy, as are very seldom seen. The Deist, and Universalist, the drunkard, the Gambler and the Swearer, were alike made the subjects of this heartbreaking work. Four months ago, Christ had no church there. It was a place of great spiritual dearth—and like the top of Gilboa had never been wet by rain or dew. But the Lord has now converted that wilderness into a fruitful field.”

Paul Perreault has been the Malta Town Historian since 2009. He served as principal in the Ballston Spa School District from 1978-1998 and as a history teacher at Shenendehowa High School from 1967-1975. He is a member of the Association of Public Historians of New York State, the Saratoga County History Roundtable and the Ballston Spa Rotary Club. Paul can be reached at historian@malta-town.org.

A man with the ominous-sounding name of Isaiah Blood, born on February 13, 1810, once operated one of the largest tool factories of its kind in the state along the Kayaderosseras Creek 150 years ago. 

The Ballston Scythe, Axe and Tool Works shipped hundreds of thousands of quality hard-edge tools around the world for decades on end.

Isaiah’s grandfather died at a relatively early age, so when John Blood moved to the town of Ballston in 1792, he brought along his nephew Sylvester. John was one of the signers of the deed of incorporation for the Ballston Baptist Church. However, by 1810 he had left Ballston and moved to New Lisbon, NY. 

Sylvester remained behind and purchased his uncle’s land on the Mourning Kill. He built a house on the corner of present-day Brookline Road and Route 67, which, although rebuilt over the years, still stands today. John had trained him well as a blacksmith, so he was able to make a good living by manufacturing scythes for local farmers. 

Isaiah apprenticed in his father’s scythe shop. Sylvester decided to expand his operations to use the more robust waterpower of the Kayaderosseras Creek just north of Ballston Spa. Upon Isaiah’s marriage in 1831, Sylvester gave him the choice of taking over the new scythe shop or a retail store that he owned. His son chose the scythe shop and almost immediately began a steady expansion of factory buildings and tool lines. At the peak of operations in 1870, Isaiah’s factories employed 300 men and produced over 800,000 scythes, axes, and other tools annually. 

In addition to his legacy as a businessman, Isaiah was elected to several political offices, including supervisor of the town of Milton and as an Assemblyman and Senator in the State Legislature, a post he held at the time of his death.

His passing came in a most unexpected manner. In the summer of 1870 he was suddenly struck with typhoid fever, an illness brought on by ingesting contaminated food or water. As was the case with Blood, the illness typically is accompanied by high fever, headaches, coughing, abdominal pain, and delirium. In modern times it is almost always successfully treated with antibiotics, but in the 1800s there was no cure.

The affliction advanced and retreated, giving some hope, but by mid-November it was clear that he would not recover. When he finally realized that the end was near, he requested that all of his employees be allowed to visit his bedside. According to the Ballston Journal, “Each and all silently approached the couch of the dying man, who had been to them not only an employer, but a true friend and counselor, and pressed his hand as it lay upon the covering of the bed—the Senator being too weak and feeble to extend it to those who approached. The scene was most impressive and many a stout heart was moved to tears at this silent but touching evidence of the warm affection that existed between the stricken employer and his bereaved workmen.” He quietly passed away in his home on November 29.

It can be said that Isaiah Blood is the “forgotten” entrepreneur of Ballston Spa, despite the fact that the hamlet of Bloodville is named after him. His scythe and axe works were famous throughout the country, but few documents survive to this day that describe his personal accomplishments and motivations.

One reason Blood’s legacy faded so quickly was the destruction of both of his main factories and the extinction of his direct family line. Although his son-in-law continued to operate the business for 20 years after Blood died, both the scythe and axe factories were completely destroyed by fire in 1900 and never rebuilt. This sudden and complete loss was devastating to the hundreds of skilled workers employed there, most of whom were forced to move away. Blood’s own son died at a young age, as did his daughter’s children, so that by the 1920s there were no direct descendants left to carry on the family name.

Timothy Starr has lived in the Capital Region since the age of 6 and published 18 local history books. He wrote a biography of Isaiah Blood and a short history of the Blood family in 2010. He can be reached at tstarr71@gmail.com.

On March 25, 1887, the New York Times published an article that was compiled from a Troy, NY, paper about the long-distance courtship of Kittie Heaton of Ballston and George Hulbert of Danbury, CT.  It seemed that they had “flirted” by letter and pictures for some time before he came to Ballston, married her sight-unseen up until that time and then, four months later Mrs. Hulbert wanted a divorce.

This historian, cognizant of much of the Town of Ballston’s history, had never heard this one before and wanted more detail. 

The New York Times article by-line indicated that the story had come from “Troy, March 24.”  Of course, Troy, like many large cities of the time, had many newspapers so it would not be an easy task to track down the original story. 

However, research at the Troy Public Library uncovered the March 24, 1887 story in the Troy Daily Times and also the “prequel,” a November story that gave the details of the courtship as well.

It seems that Mr. Hulbert had placed an ad in a paper called Cupid’s Dart (did anyone know that such media existed more than 100 years ago?) in order to “open correspondence with some damsel with a view to matrimony.”  Some time after, based only on letters and photographs, the two were engaged.  Basically unknown to each other, the prospective bride went to the local train station carrying a large white box with a red ribbon around it and he, carrying an umbrella with a blue ribbon on its handle, came by train from Connecticut to meet his bride-to-be.  It was the red and blue ribbons that were the “signals” so that they would recognize each other. Miss Heaton’s friends were with her at this first meeting as well.

The wedding happened that evening and a wedding supper was provided afterwards. Sometime afterwards, Mrs. Hulbert had a child, Inez. Four months after the wedding, the now Mrs. Hulbert asked for a divorce — as her husband’s actions were not deemed to be “proper.”

The location of the child’s birth is as of yet unknown. It seems that she could have been a product of the Heaton-Hulbert marriage but the dates do not work out.  Inez was born (we think!) July 14, 1888.  That is over a year beyond the onset of the divorce proceedings date in the paper. But we don’t have a birth record to confirm the date of birth nor do we yet have a court record of their divorce.  But we have been unable to find either one so far.

While this historian was poring over Troy papers and uncovering all of these details, a Ballston Spa Librarian, Caitlin Johnson, was trying to trace the lineage of Miss Heaton and also find some more information about the unusual courtship, marriage and divorce of the woman.  She searched through the Ballston Journals, one of the oldest continuously-running newspapers in the area, of that time period.

She found some more details, including those of the initial meeting at which the new couple “locked arms and went to the Presbyterian parsonage where they were married.”

And all this was published in the newspapers of the day, just waiting for someone many years later to pore over microfilm and old newspapers to uncover the sordid details.

In a later article about the proposed divorce, The Ballston Journal summed it up well: “Matrimonial advertisements and weddings at ten minutes sight may savor of silly romance, but sober experiences are not slow in coming.”

Doesn’t it just seem like online dating 1800’s style?  But with a not-so-fortunate ending.

Rick Reynolds has been the Ballston Town Historian since 2004. He is a retired social studies teacher at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Middle School and is the author of the book “From Wilderness to Community: The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central School District.” Rick can be reached at rreynolds@townofballstonny.org

Living at the Homestead was never easy, especially in winter. In December of 1914 the first patients were admitted to the newly built Saratoga County Tuberculosis Sanatorium in the Town of Providence. Located on a piece of land donated by Horace Carpentier years before, the site was in an extremely rural part of the county with no public transportation available to reach the area. The access road was impassable during certain times of the year, especially in the winter. 

There were several reasons the Homestead was built there. Probably most importantly, the county was given the land for free with the stipulation that it be used as some sort of a health facility. Also, the belief that the fresh air and quiet nature of the place would help improve patients’ conditions, and the fact that several other proposed sites had been rejected due to the “not in my backyard” mentality of local residents afraid of contracting the highly contagious disease, contributed to the final decision.

In the first several years of admission records for The Homestead, a single word shows up over and over again in the column marked “Reason for Leaving”: Lonesome. TB patients were often confined to their beds for most of the day and night due to the belief that physical activity could aggravate their condition and that rest and recuperation were essential to their recovery. Add to this the fact that family and friends of the patients found it very difficult to visit due to the distance from the population centers of the county and the lack of a railroad or trolley line leading to the facility.

 On top of this, even if the family did own a car, the condition of the rudimentary roads used to reach the hospital often made the trip very long and arduous for a relatively short visit. The severity of the situation is summed up nicely by Dr. G. Scott Towne, President of the Board of Managers of the Homestead in his 1924 note to the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors,

“The managers of the Homestead wish to express their thanks to your Board for the purchase of the automobile which was so much needed for the use of the Superintendent. The roads have been especially bad for the past two years and have literally torn the other machine to pieces.”

While the transportation issue would require a significant amount of time and funding before improvements were made, the staff at the Homestead started taking the burden of entertaining the patients into their own hands in order to boost morale. This also benefited the staff themselves, as the majority of them lived onsite as well.

In the early 1920s, an Occupational Therapy Department was added to The Homestead where patients were taught skills such as basketry, painting and knitting. This helped not only to pass the time in winter, but also brought in a profit to the patients. Products such as baskets, knitted sweaters, coasters and painted candlesticks made by the patients adorned store front windows such as those of the Mac Finn Drug Co., on Broadway in Saratoga Springs, who donated space for displaying these items. Dr. Dimock, Superintendent of the facility noted the advantages of this program in his Annual Report of 1924,

“… it employs the patient’s mind along channels apart from his bodily ills, it gives him a chance to learn under a competent instructor the various forms of basketry, rug weaving, decorative art, etc. and to earn a substantial competence from this work while still a patient in the hospital and replacing also that feeling of helplessness which so many of them have, to one of being of some use in the world’s work.”

A Moving Picture Fund created by the patients themselves allowed for the purchase of a projector on which movies were shown weekly, often donated by local businesses such as the Capitol Theater in Ballston Spa. For those patients who were well enough for some physical activity, winter sports such as snowshoeing, skiing and tobogganing all provided entertainment and exercise in the winter wonderland of upstate New York. 

For those who could not go outside, a constant stream of magazines, books and puzzles came in as donations from civic groups such as Girl Scouts and Elks Clubs, as well as generous individuals. A local orchestra gave concerts at the facility on occasion and a radio was installed along with amplifiers and headsets throughout the rooms so that even the non-ambulatory patients could listen in.

Eventually, the improvement of roads – especially the construction of Route 29- and the explosion of automobile purchases did allow for more frequent visitation and a stronger feeling of connection to the outside world, which was severely lacking in the early years. In the meantime, the care and creativity of the staff, the generosity of local groups and individuals and the determination of the patients themselves braided together solutions for the loneliness and isolation of being confined in The Homestead.

In our current situation in the winter of 2021, pressed upon us uninvited by the CoVid-19 pandemic, we may have more sympathy for the Homestead patients than we might normally have had. After all, one hundred years later, the need for recreation, entertainment and human interaction hasn’t changed that much, has it?

Lauren Roberts is the Saratoga County Historian. She is co-host of the WAMC podcast A New York Minute in History, along with NYS Historian Devin Lander. Roberts co-produced the recently released documentary Harnessing Nature: Building the Great Sacandaga, which chronicles the creation of the Sacandaga Reservoir. She is also the APHNYS Regional-Coordinator for municipal historians in the Capital Region. You can reach Lauren at lroberts@saratogacountyny.gov.

Before we address this question, we should acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land when I write this article – the Iroquois Confederacy and the Algonquians – and pay our respect to their elders’ past, present and emerging. 

One answer is that Saint Isaac Jogues is the statue up on Lake George.  He is honored as one of the first white European men to gaze upon a most beautiful and pristine body of water.  He named the lake “Lac Du Saint Sacrement,” which means the Lake of the Blessed Sacrament. That name remained for the lake for more than 100 years until British General William Johnson renamed it for his King, George II.

Another might know Saint Isaac Jogues as a French Catholic missionary and martyr who traveled and worked among the Native American (First Nations) populations in Canada and New York.  What most do not realize is that he was one of the first Europeans to venture into and record his travels in Saratoga County and beyond in the Mohawk Valley. 

Isaac Jogues was born in Orléans, France, into a bourgeois family, on 10 January 1607. He was educated in Jesuit schools and entered the Jesuit novitiate at age of 17.  The Jesuit community had a strong missionary focus. Twelve years later, he was ordained a priest and soon after embarked to New France (Canada).  Jogues was assigned as a missionary to the Huron and Algonquian peoples (allies of the French) in Quebec.  For six years, Jogues lived in the village of St-Joseph and learned the ways and language of the Hurons. Jogues was then charged with building a new mission at Fort Sainte-Marie in modern Ontario, Canada.

On August 3, 1642, Jogues, Guillaume Couture, René Goupil, and a group of Christian Hurons were heading back from Quebec City when they were ambushed by a war party of the Mohawk Nation, part of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Mohawks beat and tortured Jogues and the others.  The war party then took their captives on an over 100 mile journey to the Mohawk Valley. Jogues and the others were brought to various Mohawk villages to be tortured.  Throughout his captivity, Jogues comforted, baptized, heard confession from, and absolved the other prisoners. Joques was given to an older Mohawk as a slave to perform menial tasks.  In March 1643, Jogues accompanied his master to Saratoga Lake for a four-day spring fishing trip.  He is the first European to record his trip to Saratoga Lake.  The Dutch in Albany heard of Jogues plight and tried unsuccessfully to secure his release.  Ultimately, the Albany Dutch helped Jogues to escape.  Jogues was the first Catholic priest to visit New Amsterdam (New York) on his journey back to France. 

On his arrival back in Europe, Jogues was received as if he had risen from the dead.  He was an object of curiosity and reverence.  Jogues even had an audience with Queen Anne of Austria, who kissed his mutilated hands.  Pope Urban gave him permission to celebrate Mass despite these mutilated hands. “A Martyr of Christ should be allowed to drink the Blood of Christ”, the Holy Father said

Within a year, Jogues was back in Canada. In 1646, Jogues was sent to the Mohawk country to discuss a peace treaty with the Iroquois.  Jogues traveled along the traditional pathway including the Hudson River through Saratoga County to visit those who had helped him escape slavery in Albany.  Then Jogues was on to the Mohawk Valley for a successful peace mission.   Peace was not enough for Jogues.  He was determined to start a mission to share his Catholicism with the Mohawks.  He returned later that year.  But on this visit, he was blamed for a crop failure.  As a result, Jogues was seized by the Mohawks at Ossernenon (now Auriesville, N.Y.). After a cruel beating, a blow from a tomahawk gave him the crown of martyrdom. He died on October 18, 1646.

Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf and six other martyred missionaries, all Jesuit priests or laymen associated with them, were canonized by the Catholic Church in 1930.  They are known as the North American Martyrs. A shrine was built in their honor at Auriesville, New York, at a site formerly believed to be that of the Mohawk village. 

Sean Kelleher is the historian for the town of Saratoga, NY. He writes a daily blog at historianatsaratoga.wordpress.com. He is a board member of the Saratoga County History Center. Sean was a member of the New York State French and Indian War 250th Anniversary Commemoration Commission. He can be reached by email at historiantosaratoga@gmail.com.

IMAGE GALLERY
Photo 1: “Jock” Whitney and his wife Betsey.
Photo 2: “Sonny” Whitney in goverment service.
Photo 3: The great Tom Fool. 
Photo 4: Sonny and Mary Lou.
Photos provided.

Last week we looked at the early years of the Whitney cousins and their achievements prior to the Second World War. In this final installment we will see them at war and in the political arena. We will read of their great racehorses and the profound effect the Whitney family had on Saratoga, their adopted summer home.

WAR, POLITICS AND A RACEHORSE FOR THE AGES
The 1940s would complicate the lives of the cousins, as it did so many Americans. The unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor by The Empire of Japan brought our country into the Second World War. Jock and Sonny were quick to enter the fray. 

Jock joined the Army Air Forces where he served as an intelligence officer on the staff of General Ira Eaker, rising to the rank of Colonel. In 1944 he was taken prisoner by the Germans. In route to a prisoner of war camp, he was able to escape his captors. For meritorious service during the war, Jock received both the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star. 

During the conflict Jock did manage to marry for a second time. He wed Betsey Cushing, formerly the daughter-in-law of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942. Along with Babe and Millie she was one of the glamorous Cushing sisters. They captured fame as socialites of the era, who through their beauty and charm ascended to the top of American aristocracy. 

Sonny also served with distinction during the war. On the outbreak of hostilities, he resigned as Chairman of the Board of Pan American Airlines. Without hesitation, he, like Jock, joined the Army Air Forces. Sonny served in both the India and North Africa Theaters. As an intelligence officer with the Ninth Air Force he was heavily involved with the planning of the Ploesti air raids. For his contributions to the war effort Sonny received both the Legion of Merit and the Distinguished Service Medal. The war ended in 1945. The cousins came home to the states. 

Two years later Sonny entered government service. Harry Truman was President and he liked what he saw in the newcomer to politics. “Give ‘em hell Harry” offered Sonny the position of Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. Sonny accepted the post. In 1949 he switched gears and headed over to the Commerce Department. There he served as Under Secretary through 1950. 

During that period Sonny’s racing stable was riding high. His three-year-old colt Phalanx became a star during the 1947 racing season. To Sonny’s delight Phalanx won the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes and was named as American Champion Three-Year-Old Colt. Four years later Sonny took all the marbles. His colt Counterpoint gave him and Hall of Fame trainer Syl Veitch their second Belmont Stakes success. He continued his superb campaign with a win that fall in the prestigious Jockey Club Gold Cup. For his efforts Counterpoint was named Horse of the Year for 1951.The following year the champ gave Sonny one final gift. He romped home in the Whitney Stakes here at the Spa in the final start of his career. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney was on clouds number one through nine, and the best was yet to come. 

Cousin Jock leaped back into the business world after the war ended with a new concept, Venture Capital. The firm J.H. Whitney & Co. invested in new ideas that could not get bank approval. It proved to be a resounding financial success. Jock and sister Joan’s Greentree Stable was reaching dizzying heights in the forties. In 1942 the barn sent out a three-year-old colt named Shut Out. He promptly took both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. He also notched the Travers Stakes here at the Spa later that summer. Devil Diver was a force to be reckoned with on the racetrack for the years 1943-44. The Greentree Star dominated his opponents during that stretch. He was named Handicap Horse of the Year for both seasons. Devil Diver was enshrined in horse racing’s Hall of Fame in 1980. 

In the early 1950s Greentree captured headlines in sports pages across the country. A brilliant thoroughbred with the name Tom Fool would take Greentree to the top of the horse racing universe. He was named Two-Year-Old Colt of the Year in 1951. In 1953 as a four-year-old he reached his peak crushing all opposition. Tom Fool ran the table. He took the New York Handicap Triple, then America’s supreme test for older horses for only the second time in its long history. To Jock’s elation he added the Whitney Stakes to his resume here at Saratoga. It was the fifth time a Greentree runner took the race. Tom Fool swept horse racing honors for the year 1953. He was named Horse of the

Year, as well as best sprinter and handicap horse. In 1960 the champion was inducted into the Horse Racing Hall of Fame. Tom Fool stands high on the list of the greatest racehorses that ever competed on the American Turf. 

In 1956 Jock entered government foreign service. His close friend President Dwight Eisenhower offered him the position of the United States Ambassador to Great Britain. Who better for the diplomatic post than an American of British descent that could trace his roots to the Mayflower? John Hay Whitney, along with his elegant wife Betsy brought their brand of American dignity and style to the Court of St. James’s. The year 1961 marked the end of the Eisenhower administration. With that Jock boarded a flight from London to New York and made his return to the private sector.

1958 WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR
Sonny Whitney was a busy man in the 1950s. He was the owner of numerous flourishing business concerns. In 1950 he took the time from a busy schedule to establish the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. He led a group of the sport’s most well-known personalities in making the dream become a reality. The following year the museum opened at the Canfield Casino in Congress Park. In 1955 it was moved to its present location on Union Avenue. 

A major turning point in the life of Sonny occurred in 1958. He wed Marie Louise Schroeder in January of that year. The union proved to be the happiest of his four marriages and would last until his death thirty-five years later. 

It was at this time that Sonny introduced Mary Lou to his Saratoga estate known as Cady Hill. She instantly became enamored with the property. With a keen eye, Mary Lou noticed that Saratoga, except for a short racing season, was pretty much a ghost town. The lake houses, where late night gambling and world class entertainment once flourished were a thing of the past. The grand hotels that had lined Broadway went the way of the wrecking ball earlier in the decade. Hotels and restaurants were few and far between. Saratoga needed a benefactor, someone who had social standing, flair, a bigger than life personality and connections with all the right people to bring about change. Add to that the Whitney mystique and Mary Lou was the perfect candidate. With Sonny’s blessing, his bride set out to energize and help create an atmosphere that would forge Saratoga into a world-renowned destination.

PUBLISHER, ART COLLECTOR AND A HORSE FOR THE AGES
The year Sonny wed Mary Lou, his cousin Jock entered the newspaper business. He spent a good portion of the next decade as the publisher of the New York Herald Tribune. 

Jock was also busy building one of the largest private art collections in the world. He amassed world class paintings by the Great Masters of the seventeenth century and those of the Impressionist Movement of the late 1800s. After Jock’s death, the magnificent collection was disbursed at his wife Betsey’s discretion. Many of the notable works were bequeathed to their favorite museums, the National Art Gallery and The Museum of Modern Art. 

Jock’s beloved Greentree reached a milestone in 1968. Stage Door Johnny took the 100th running of the Belmont Stakes. It was the fourth time the renowned stable took the race. It also marked the last of seven wins in Triple Crown events for Greentree. The stable continued to race quality horses until 1982. During that year Jock passed away. It spelled the end for Greentree. It’s famed salmon pink with black striped sleeved silks were retired. The stock was sold off and horse racing had lost one of its greatest names.

HELLO MARY LOU. WE LOVE YOU
Mary Lou embarked on her venture to enhance Saratoga. The Whitney Gala at the Casino in Congress Park became her trademark event. She enticed the rich and famous to attend the annual August charity ball.

It became the main attraction of the racing season. Mary Lou was soon anointed as “The Queen of Saratoga.” She along with Sonny were among the early benefactors of the Performing Arts Center in the Spa State Park. The amphitheater brought Saratoga to the forefront of the summer music and dance scene. The Philadelphia Orchestra and New York City Ballet took center stage to open the season. Then it was time for the great entertainers and rock bands to perform in front of packed houses. 

Mary Lou also worked with Saratoga dignitaries and businessmen to further the development of the downtown area. Another project that she innovated was the formation of the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame. 

Mary Lou had a special interest in the welfare of the backstretch employees. Along with John Hendrickson, she worked tirelessly to better the conditions for those who made their living on the backside of the track. To chronicle all her achievements in the rebirth and promoting of Saratoga would require much more attention than is available here.

THE END OF AN ERA
In 1992, at the age of 93 Sonny passed away. He and his cousin Jock were the last of the Whitney line to live the life of celebrity. They carried the family name to even greater heights than their ancestors. The cousins were lions in the world of business and finance and left an indelible mark on their favorite pastime, The Sport of Kings. We will never see the likes of them again. Saratoga is a better place for having known their presence here as an integral part of its storied past.

MIS FOR MORAN, MILITARY, MISTRESS

Married on May 30, 1887, soon afterward grandfather Emory’s parents started their family. Initially living in Amsterdam, NY, their father is listed in the city directories as a laborer, stove mounter and tin smith. Born 14-months apart, the contrast in Grandfather Emory and his brother William’s differing lives and journeys is both sanguine and somber.

Sometime after their father passes away just before Thanksgiving in 1894, their widowed mother moves her four children to Saratoga Springs where it seems that her family has been living as early as the 1850’s. One daughter Lilliana who passes away in Amsterdam during childhood is actually born in Saratoga, but is buried with their father in Amsterdam’s Green Hill Cemetery.

William is a handsome storied fella whose dramatic episodes are well documented in local newspapers. Somehow it seems that he didn’t get along with his mother’s new husband. William rejects life in Brandtville, preferring the dangerous drama of street life and becomes a wayward youth. 

In 1903 William befriends another ‘colored’ homeless youth named Moran. The duo gets caught by police violating Sunday Law, shooting a hot craps game on Ash Street when they should be attending church. William has previously been expelled from school and seems to be in a downward spiral. Without family or a guardian, Moran has been sleeping in alleyways and remains homeless as the weather changes to freezing cold. When the duo appears in court, Moran asks the judge to send him to the Rochester Industrial School where the judge decides to assign them both.

With no record of William’s length of stay in Rochester, he later returns to Saratoga and in 1913 is still single and living with his lady on Monroe Street. In the absence of romance, one might pine for the presence of a paramour… William’s lady is described as ‘Mrs.,’ so she may be a widow. She is also a white woman with a five-year-old daughter. The record states that the police are called to their Monroe Street residence where at the time there is an accusation against William related to the discipline of her daughter.

Racially speaking, one might conjecture that this should be the immediate end of William. The shocking twist and turn of plot leaves a most surprising conclusion. William is relieved of all charges.

His lady is charged with endangering the morals of her child for living with a black man. Soon afterward, the lady is required to undergo examination and is sent to prison at the downstate Reformatory for Women in Bedford, NY. This facility remains open, and is one of the oldest and largest maximum security prisons for women in New York State. Her daughter is committed to an orphanage, the St. Vincent Female Asylum in Troy. How this all resolves remains a mystery to me.

June 1, 1917 William is registered for the World War 1 draft and is living with his new lady at 18 Chapel Street in Albany. He lives for 23 more animated years and passes away shortly after his 47th birthday in 1940.

U IS FOR UNDERSTANDING, UNCOVERING AND UNFORTUNATE

Understanding the racial dynamics of being people of color and residents of Saratoga’s Brandtville continues to be an ongoing discovery process, eye-opening and brow-raising experience. Sometimes seeking social options within and beyond the immediate Brandtville neighborhood results in tragedy. My Brandtville home deed dates from 1904. This same year, a tragic murder takes place in Searings Alley, which is located off Congress Street and is infamous for various crimes.

It is important to know how greatly race can and still does play a role in our daily experience and certain crimes. The newspaper describes a mixed-ale party gathering at a Searings Alley home to celebrate the arrival of guests from out of town. The newspaper names William Wicks and Arthur Deffendorf as two negroes in attendance. The report also names the hosts and guests, relating their ethnicity and others described as ‘low whites’. Interestingly the account does not say that the two negroes are armed or have a weapon. Some drinking is precursor to a ‘sparring game’ that takes place. The object is for two men to wear their hats while sparring and see whose hat gets knocked off first. Whoever loses their hat first will have to buy a few quarts of beer to supply the party.

Apparently the sparring match starts out friendly, but ends with a pile of people on the parlor floor. William and Arthur recover themselves and flee from the home via Searings Alley. Their assailants give chase, and Arthur falls down in the alleyway. Managing to catch both of them, both William and Arthur are stabbed in an attack described as brutal, beastly and bloody. William’s wounds are fatal, but Arthur survives. William’s exact family relationship remains a question to me. While it is clear that Arthur Deffendorf is Grandmother Maud’s stepfather, I now understand that this tragedy is surely the reason that her mother and stepfather leave Saratoga Springs and relocate to Red Bank, New Jersey leaving Grandmother Maud behind to be raised by her Grandmother Julia and Uncle Howard.

Carol Daggs is the author of Saratoga Soul Brandtville Blues. Daggs’ creative name is Jazzage: the artful application of musical Jazz sounds to the auditory apparatus and soul via vocal and instrumental flow. Jazzage uses each letter of the alphabet to carefully craft chapters A-Z. Each chapter relates to Daggs family’s 19th and 20th century life experience in Saratoga Springs’ Brandtville: a predominantly African American farming community located south of the city corporation line. This excerpt is two chapters from her book. Please contact the author for all book-related inquiries at saratogasoul2020@gmail.com