Nothing is quite as exciting as being part of the crowd at a Super Bowl or at the Olympic Games. That type of excitement must have been experienced by Saratoga Lake dwellers in July 1874 when the “Great Intercollegiate Regatta” came to our community. Nine colleges – Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Wesleyan, Dartmouth, Williams, Cornell, Trinity and Princeton all entered six man shells. While each school brought their own fans to the area, most interest (especially betting interest) centered on the fierce Harvard –Yale rivalry. In a race five years earlier, Yale had beaten the boys from Harvard but were charged with unsportsmanlike conduct and disqualified. Bad blood existed between these two prestigious members of the Ivy League. 

Rowing was the first college sport to gain popularity in America and is responsible for three essential elements of modern college athletics – recognizable school colors (allowing spectators to see the position of the boats from the shore), organized cheering and gambling.

Viewed by over 25,000 people, the event caused The New York Times to state “We can scarcely remember an event not involving a war, or some vast issue in politics, which has occasioned so much excitement. Crowds of persons waited around the newspaper offices last night until after dark, and we received many hundreds of messages from all parts of the country requesting information about the result of the race. In fact this college contest became all at once the absorbing subject of the hour. The Chicago fire was as much of a thing of the past as if it happened ten years ago.” The interest was so great that John Morrissey, owner of the Saratoga Race Course, declared “There will be no (horse) racing during Regatta Week.”

The course was a three mile straightaway starting near Snake Hill and running due north near the entrance to Fish Creek.  A grandstand was constructed near the finish line and “farm wagons, brick carts- in fact, every species of vehicle going on four wheels” were hired to provide rides from the fashionable hotels in the city. It was rumored that some local farmers were charging as much as $50 for their carriage and team. Race fever was fed by the large sums wagered on the outcome.

Originally scheduled for Thursday, July 16, the race was postponed twice due to rough waters. When it finally went off on Saturday morning, the crowd was much diminished due to social conflicts or loss of interest. Among those who missed the race because of a conflict was President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia who spent the day visiting the Methodist Camp Meeting at Round Lake. Arriving on the morning train from Saratoga Springs sometime before 10 a.m., he spent some time at the Bishop’s cottage meeting with dignitaries and then was escorted to the preacher’s stand where he was introduced to the crowd and received with prolonged applause. After enjoying a sermon on Power and Assurance of the Gospel by the Rev. Douglass from Montreal, he ate dinner, held a short reception for the public, and departed on a special train for Saratoga. A picture of Grant surrounded by a group of admirers appears in Mary Hesson’s Round Lake: Little Village in the Grove. 

So who won? Was it the favored Yale team or their arch rival Harvard? Neither. The team from Columbia was the winner with Harvard placing third and Yale embarrassingly last. Both Harvard and Yale filed claims of foul against their rival but both were disallowed by the judges. Yale then challenged the boys from Cambridge to go “mano a mano” with backers offering bets as much as $5,000. Harvard responded “After the conduct of the Yale University crew, not only during the race but also at the conclusion of the race just completed, the Harvard crew refuses to entertain a challenge whatever from the Yale University.”

The Regatta was run in Saratoga again in 1875, but moved away in 1876 and never again captured the imagination of the sporting world. However, a local boy, James Riley from the Riley family of Riley’s Cove and Riley’s Lakehouse, became a national rowing star in the single scull. In 1882, he won all 56 races he entered and continued rowing on Lake Lonely until he was 76 years old. 

Paul Perreault has been the Malta Town Historian since 2009. He served as principal in the Ballston Spa School District from 1978 until 1998 and as a history teacher at Shenendehowa High School from 1967 until 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

Sources: “Regatta Week at Saratoga” Harvard Crimson, Oct. 2, 1874. The Fourth Annual Regatta of the Rowing Association of America, July 18, 1874 at Saratoga Lake  from the Local History Room at the Saratoga Library. 

One Hundred and Fifty Years ago, on July 15, 1871, a news article appeared in the Saturday edition of the Ballston Journal, “Wm Brown and John Parent are preparing the foundations for two fine houses on Bath Street, opposite the Washington Spring.”

Brown’s house would not be the typical gable-roofed residence, But a fashionable French-Gothic Mansard. The post-civil war period was known for unabashed ostentation. Suppliers, manufacturers, and financiers had profited greatly from the government’s need to equip and maintain its armed forces. There was so many nouveau riche showing off their wealth, it was fashionable to do so.

Brown was a grocer in Ballston Spa and had made a comfortable life for his family. He was, in no stretch of the imagination, wealthy. That didn’t stop Brown, a poor boy from Oswego, from trying to appear rich.

Not to be shown up by Mr. Parent or anyone else, he engaged the services of architect, Marcus Cummings. Cummings worked out of Troy and had recently landed important commissions in Saratoga Springs, including the Village Hall, John Morrissey’s Casino, and the railroad station.  He was also designing the Glens Falls Opera House.

Brown’s Mansard-roofed cottage posed a stylistic problem. It was essentially a story and a half structure. The steep roof covered most of the second floor, allowing for ten-foot ceilings. However, windows in the roof area were traditionally set above the cornice, creating a claustrophobic interior.

Cumming’s solution was to push the second-floor windows through the cornice, creating a two-foot by four-foot alcove, peaked by the sides of a right, isosceles triangle to a height of over eight feet.  The result opened up the second-floor rooms, creating airy spaces of fanciful angles. 

That solution created another problem.  Dormers formed by the projection through the cornice had to be supported. Two were over porches, and one over a bay.  The fourth was over nothing.                                                   

The solution was to extend a downstairs window through the wall to support the fourth window.  Two provide a balanced interior, the first-floor parlor’s other window also had to be extended, even though it was under the front porch.

That created yet another problem for Cummings.  He couldn’t leave the resulting alcoves unadorned in a formal parlor.  He topped them with canopies jutting into the room, which were supported the same way as the presidium over the Glens Falls Opera House stage, with square columns turned 45 degrees.  The columns of Mr. Brown’s house, though, were decorated with an indented molding, terminating with a right isosceles triangle.  The architect could have stopped there but carried over the same interior design to the bay window in the second parlor.

Having solved the cascading problems, Cummings added an exterior flourish of sheer genius.  In a period of heavily decorated exterior window surrounds, he eliminated all moldings from around the second floor, front parlor, and bay windows. Only windows under the side porch and on the non-public side of the house had heavy moldings. A light band course ran the length of the house, tracing over the tops of the windows on each floor. (see exterior picture above)

Finally, Cummings created a false tower by pushing to the ceiling four, tall, narrow second-floor windows above the house’s entry and capped them with a four-gabled roof topped with a crest.  The over-all effect of steep-roofed dormers rising along the height of the building, an unbroken span of body color along the public sides of the structure, and an apparent tower, was a far larger and taller house than the small French Gothic cottage really was.

Mr. Brown had a house unlike anyone else, except the owners of the Glens Falls Opera House.  They had Cummings design a slightly larger sister house, which was built on the corner of Platt and Warren Streets in Glens Falls.  Eventually that building was cut into apartments, allowed to deteriorate, and torn down several years ago.  Brown’s cottage remains, one of Ballston Spa’s many architectural landmarks.

John Cromie is the Ballston Spa Village Historian, has authored an architectural survey of Ballston Spa, was one of the organizers of Preservation Association of the Southern Tier and has served with Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation for 25 years on its board and advocacy committee.

Just before dawn on July 7, 1944, several thousand Japanese soldiers, sailors and civilians swarmed from their positions along the northwestern corner of the Pacific island of Saipan in the Northern Marianas. The target of what would be the largest banzai attack of World War II was the U.S. Army’s 27th Infantry Division, specifically the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 105th Infantry Regiment.

By the end of the day, more than 900 out of the approximately 1,100 soldiers in those two battalions would be casualties. Many of them were from the Albany-Saratoga region. Nearly all the Japanese attackers were wiped out in the last major enemy assault on Saipan during 25 days of fighting that left about 15,000 Americans killed, wounded or missing in action.

The 27th Division was a New York National Guard organization called up for federal service in September 1940, a year after Germany’s invasion of Poland started WWII. The division was sent to Fort McClellan in Alabama in October 1940 for training maneuvers. Things got off to a tragic start when two teenage girls were killed as a freight train plowed into the crowd that overflowed the tracks at the Saratoga Springs train station during the sendoff for the 105th Regiment’s Saratoga-based Company L.

The 27th Division was still in Alabama when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, drawing the U.S. into WWII. The division was deployed to California later that month, and from there its four regiments — 105th, 106th , 108th and 165th – began shipping out to Hawaii beginning in late February 1942 (the 108th would be transferred to another division in 1943). Most of the men in the 105th and 106th regiments were from upstate New York, while the 165th Regiment mostly consisted of soldiers from the New York City area.

Elements of the division got their first taste of combat during the Gilbert Islands campaign in November 1943 and the assault on the Marshall Islands in February 1944.

The entire 27th Division participated in the Saipan invasion, which started on June 15, 1944, when two U.S. Marine Corps divisions fought their way ashore. The Army division began landing on June 16 after heavy USMC casualties. The ensuing battle saw some of the fiercest fighting in the entire Pacific war. Faced with rugged terrain and an enemy determined to fight to the last man, American Marines and soldiers used artillery, flamethrowers, hand grenades and small arms fire to overcome Japanese positions.

By July 6, the 27th Division and the Marines had driven the few thousand remaining Japanese defenders to the island’s northern end. Around 4:45 a.m. on July 7, the enemy launched their final banzai attack on positions held by the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 105th Regiment.

Estimates of the size of the attacking force vary, but at least 4,000 and as many as 6,000 Japanese charged the American lines. The 1st and 2nd battalions’ positions were overrun as waves of enemy soldiers, many of them armed only with samurai swords or knives tied to poles, swarmed into rear areas, where hand-to-hand fighting ensued as the Americans ran out of ammunition.

The attack lasted all day. It ended when survivors of the onslaught, their backs against the sea, received reinforcement from nearby units. In all, the two battalions of the 105th Regiment lost 406 men killed and 512 wounded. Afterward, the 27th Division counted the bodies of more than 4,300 Japanese attackers, including nearly 3,000 killed by the 105th Regiment.

U.S. military officials declared Saipan secured on July 9, 1944.

The 27th Division was still heavy with New Yorkers when the Saipan battle started. As a result, several hundred soldiers from the Empire State were among the 27th Division’s casualties, including about 160 New Yorkers from the 105th Regiment who were killed, with dozens of those deaths occurring during the July 7 banzai charge.

None of the Saratoga County soldiers in Co. L were killed at Saipan, although several were wounded. John Miner, of Schuylerville, a former Co. L member, was killed June 25 while serving with the 105th Regiment’s Co. K.

Three members of the 105th Regiment would receive the Medal of Honor posthumously for their heroics on July 7, 1944, including two soldiers from Troy: Lt. Col. William O’Brien and Sgt. Thomas Baker. O’Brien is buried in his hometown, while Baker’s remains were returned from Hawaii in 1999 and reinterred at the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in the town of Saratoga.

Among the 27th Division soldiers from Saratoga County who fought at Saipan were Arthur Robinson, John Wait, Alton Coleman,. Joseph W. Ernst Jr., John Shambo, Kenneth Knowlton, Howard W. Coonradt Jr. and William Main, all of Saratoga Springs; Charles Drew, Schuylerville, Vladimir “Val” Serbalik, Mechanicville, and Douglas “Duff” Doherty, Corinth.

Robinson, now 98, is likely the last of Saratoga County’s 27th Division veterans still living, along with Wilfred “Spike” Mailloux, of Halfmoon, a Cohoes native who was wounded in the banzai attack. Mailloux, 97, is the last living member of the 96 soldiers of the 105th Regiment’s Cohoes-based Co. B who were mobilized in 1940.

Hundreds of cars drive down McMaster Street in Ballston Spa on a daily basis, but few may notice the beautiful old bell that sits silently on display in front of Building 1 of the Saratoga County Complex.

This bell hung in Saratoga County’s third Courthouse which was erected in 1890 and stood on the location where Building 5 is today (50 West High Street). The bell was purchased from the Clinton H. Meneely Bell Company in Troy, New York for just over $800. The inscription on the exterior reads:

Saratoga County Court House

1791-1891

Equal Justice to All

Nullus Liber Homo Capiatur 

County Building Committee

George L. Thompson

William W. Sweet

Stephen C. Medbery

The Latin phrase “Nullus Liber Homo Capiatur” means “Let no free man be seized.” The pealing of the bell was most likely a common background noise in the village, though it seems not everyone was thrilled with its melody. A small mention in The Schuylerville Standard published shortly after the bell was installed noted, “People who have been in the habit of hearing the cheery sound of the old court house bell at every session of court, are now called together by the lugubrious tones of the new bell.” (The Schuylerville Standard October 28, 1891) Like it or not, the bell rang frequently. Besides being rung when court was in session, it was almost certainly used on special occasions and may also have signaled the time.

Thanks to newspaper articles, we know it was also used to alert village residents of danger. In December of 1892, accused murderer Martin Foy used a fake revolver consisting of a tin foil-covered stick to threaten the jailer into handing over the keys. Foy was able to unlock the door and escape onto High Street. According to the Buffalo Currier, “County Clerk Grose, who saw the escape, at once rang an alarm on the courthouse bell and over 100 men started after the fleeing desperado up Remsen Street and across lots to McDonald’s grove, half a mile south of the village, where he attempted to conceal himself in the brush.” (Buffalo Currier, December 16 1892). Thankfully, he was captured in short order. Incidentally, he was found by none other than Tommy C. Luther, well-known proprietor of the White Sulphur Springs Hotel.

On an early morning in August 1894, the courthouse bell rang feverishly to let villagers know that four prisoners had escaped the jail and were loose on the streets of Ballston Spa (Niagara Falls Gazette Aug 17, 1894). They had filed the lock off their cell door and tied bed sheets together to slide down the wall and run away.

Over time, the bell was probably used less and less, being replaced by more modern means of communication and time pieces. By 1961, the stately courthouse building over which the bell hung had begun to show its age and there was concern over the strength of the walls in the bell tower. The county decided to remove the 2,500 pound bell to ensure the safety of the public in making sure the structure did not fail. A contractor from Saratoga Springs was hired to remove the bell and as part of his payment, he would be allowed to keep it for salvage. Ballston Spa residents, nostalgic for the sounds of the old bell, disagreed with this plan and came up with their own solution. The Ballston Spa Village Board paid the salvager $500 to save the bell from being scrapped and decided to display the bell within the village. A fundraiser collected $400 which was to be put toward purchasing a base or pedestal once the location question was settled.

While awaiting that decision, the bell was removed and stored on the second floor of the Ballston Spa Village garage on Thompson Street. In 1968, tragedy struck. On Friday, March 8, the village garage caught fire and was completely destroyed. However, the bell fared far better than the highway equipment stored inside. It was a bit worse for wear but still in one piece.

Then Director of Planning, Larry Gordon, had the bell removed from the rubble at the site of the garage and put plans in motion to finally give the tired old bell a place in the sun at the new Saratoga County Municipal Complex on McMaster Street. Two years later the 1891 courthouse bell was unveiled and dedicated on July 4, 1970. The Ceremony included Town of Charlton Supervisor Fred Hequemburg as Master of Ceremonies and several
other speakers.

This year marks the fifty-first anniversary of the bell’s relocation to McMaster Street where it still resides, despite a massive fire and the threat of the smelter’s pot, thanks to a group of citizens concerned with its preservation.

In the early morning hours of July 4, 1919, a fire alarm was sounded in the village of Corinth.  Many residents believed it to be some boys celebrating Independence Day a bit early.  However, when the International Paper Mill fire whistle sounded everyone knew it was not a prank.  The popular German-American Club on Pine Street was ablaze.  The local fire companies fought the fire and kept it from spreading to other buildings, but the large clubhouse could not be saved.

The German-American Club was constructed about 1890 on lower Pine Street next to a creek.  Many German immigrants had come to Corinth to work in the Hudson River Pulp and Paper Company, (which became part of International Paper Company in 1898), in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.  Settling along Pine Street near the mill, the Germans created a stock company that provided health insurance for their members as well as establishing the club house.  The three-story wooden structure housed an opera hall, bowling alleys, billiard parlor, basketball court as well as rooms to rent.  It became the social center of the community – picnics were held on the spacious lawn under the nearby pines. 

In 1896 dancing instructions were offered with both stage and ball room lessons given on Monday afternoons and evenings. Participants could ride an omnibus to and from the club house. Bowling and shooting matches were held here, too, with prizes ranging from oil painting to boxes of cigars and beer.  Both a Germania Glee Club and Germania Quartet gave grand concerts.  Other community organizations used the club house for events including the Republican Party which had a grand rally here in support of William McKinley.  The local fire companies held dances and festivals at the club house, too.

The property was later acquired by Pat Brady and by the time of the fire Edward Flynn owned it with William Flynn managing it. By 1914 it was known as the G.A.Club House since Germans were becoming unpopular leading up to the First World War.  The Irish immigrants that lived on nearby lower Palmer Avenue (known as Cork Town) frequented the club house where Fitzgerald’s Famous ale and lager were on tap. 

In November 1917 John Flynn was arrested for serving two men who claimed they were looking for work at the paper mill.  The men asked for something to drink and were given “near beer.”  When they asked for something stronger, they were provided with liquor.  At that point the two men identified themselves as state troopers.  Flynn was arrested and charged with a violation of the liquor tax law of New York. 

On the evening before the fire William Flynn had locked up the empty building before going to Glens Falls Hospital to be with his wife and sick infant.  It was suspected the fire had begun in the stock room from a defective electric wire and spread to the rest of the building.  The loss was estimated at about $15,000 and there was some insurance coverage.  The fire showed the community that new fire fighting equipment was needed and a new system to alert the volunteer hose companies had to be created.

Rachel Clothier is historian for the Town of Corinth, operates the Corinth Museum, and is retired from Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls.

In 1845, Amasiah Ford, of Ballston Spa, wrote a multi-page manuscript for his application seeking a veteran’s pension. The account of his military experience 30-plus years earlier would be used 150 years later as references in several books on the War of 1812.

Amasiah was born on June 24, 1796, the third son of Revolutionary War veteran Sanbun Ford and his wife Ada. While farming was certainly a part of his early life in Saratoga County, at the age of 16 he enlisted in the U.S. Army at the outbreak of hostilities with Britain in 1812. Like his patriot father before him, Amasiah answered the call to arms to defend America at an early age.

He would see action at places such as Fort George, Ontario; Sackets Harbor, N.Y.; Chippawa Creek, Ontario and Lundy’s Lane, Ontario.  At Lundy’s Lane (on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls) he noted that he was advancing with comrades when the British rose up and ambushed his company. Amasiah was one of just eight U.S. soldiers to escape the slaughter. He recounted how during another action he leveled his gun at an enemy soldier and they both discharged their guns at the same time. A musket ball passed through Amasiah’s cap under his cockade and he never saw that soldier again.

Amasiah’s pension records reflect forced marches in cold and inclement weather with little or no protection from the elements. In some spots, the soldiers were in mud up their knees. Another account relates how they had no food, but the officers procured a cow which was shared by all.  With no bread to eat, they roasted pumpkins as a substitute.

His wartime deprivations while on campaign would be one of the main reasons why Amasiah sought a pension from the federal government. He stated that those years in which he served his country ended up giving him rheumatism which stopped him from working in his trade as a shoemaker. Two physicians from Ballston Spa would attest to this affliction.

Amasiah stated in pension papers for his older brother Simeon that they saw each other at Fort George in Upper Canada (Ontario) in June of 1813.  Their paths crossed again in January of 1814 at Shadagee Four Corners, now present day Chateaugay, N.Y and finally in Plattsburgh, N.Y. in April of the same year.  What joy there must have been at each of these encounters so far from home. 

With his war years behind him, Amasiah met and married Selina Whitford July 4, 1818. They would have three boys and a girl. None would live past the age of 11, his second son dying in 1829 followed by his only daughter and youngest son in 1830. In 1831, his oldest child, 11-year-old Sanborn, was killed by a horse-drawn gig near the Sans Souci Hotel in the village of Ballston Spa.  He would sue Col. James Monroe (nephew of President James Monroe), whose servant was driving the gig, and win a settlement of $200.

Amasiah’s older brother Simeon would name his youngest son, my great-great-grandfather, Sanborn. Was it to honor his brother’s loss?

In May of 1843, Amasiah was indicted for conspiring to defraud. Amasiah, along with Samuel Welden and Benjamin Howd, had conspired to defraud William P. Green by falsely reporting lawsuits before the justice of the peace in both Malta and Clifton Park. They were charged with procuring the issuance of a summons against Green and had Howd, a Clifton Park constable, serve the papers to a person impersonating Green. They later would get a judgment in default when the real Green didn’t show up. The evidence against Amasiah and Welden was so compelling they were both sentenced to three months in county jail and fined $250 each. Howd escaped judgement because it wasn’t clear if he was a willing participant or a duped official like the two town justices.

Amasiah died 13 days before his 57th birthday on June 11, 1853 and is buried in the Ballston Spa village cemetery next to his son Sanborn. He would reach out across time and establish his legacy by the pension papers he wrote over 175 years ago. His widow Selina received half of Amasiah’s pension after attesting to having run herself down taking care of her husband. Selina would live out her life with her sister and brother-in-law in Henrietta, just outside Rochester, N.Y. There she would join her husband and children, reunited for eternity, on February 11, 1873.

Although no trace remains today, the Glen Paper Collar Company was a visible presence in Ballston Spa 150 years ago. It was located in the famous Blue Mill building on the north side of Milton Avenue, built as one of the area’s first grist mills. Many may have heard of the collar company, which was one of the largest of its kind in the country. But few know that the company’s owners, Horace Medbery and Henry Mann, were also prolific inventors.

Horace Medbery was the son of Stephen and Sarah Medbery, proprietors of the hotel in Ballston Spa which still bears their name. He was one of those rare individuals who was able to put his inventions to practical use in his various business ventures in Ballston Spa, Mechanicville, and elsewhere. Henry Mann was the son of Henry Mann Sr., a prominent local businessman and Saratoga County treasurer. The Mann family lived in the former Aldridge’s Hotel, now the home of Brookside Museum, just down the street from The Medbery Hotel. Horace and Henry were neighbors while growing up in the village.

During the 1870s, a peculiar clothing fad swept the country. Disposable cotton-based paper collars were introduced to the upper classes as a way of maintaining a fresh, white collar rather than attempting to clean soiled cloth collars. Some of the first paper collars in the country were manufactured two miles north of Ballston by Lindley Murray Crane, a paper mill owner and holder of three patents. Henry Mann’s father also manufactured paper collar materials in nearby Factory Village for some years under the partnership of Mann & Laflin.

Horace and Henry recognized their business opportunity even before the fad hit its peak, and rented space at the Blue Mill to establish the Glen Paper Collar Company. In their first year, the partnership produced nine million collars. Profits were poured back into the business by purchasing the glazing works of Rand & Edwards located below them in the Blue Mill. Soon they occupied the entire building, so in 1871 they were forced to build a five-story, 60 foot by 40 foot addition, reportedly constructed in twenty days. They rented the old Waverly Hall for use as a packing station and salesroom.

Shipments of collars increased year after year. At its height in 1875, the factory was producing 21 million paper collars and five million paper cuffs per year and employed 150 people.

At this time, Medbery submitted his first of many patents. He, along with Henry Mann and Simeon Drake, perfected a new steam drying wheel for use in the collar factory. The machine was developed, as the partners put it, “after much study and reflection, and expenditure of money in purchasing machinery which did not meet our wants.”

On the same day as the drying wheel patent was filed, Medbery submitted an improvement for cutting paper collars, the object of which was to rapidly cut collars from long rolls of cloth-faced paper by passing it between two rollers. One of Ballston’s more unusual inventions was developed by Henry Mann, who patented a shipping box for paper collars that could be converted into an ornamental lampshade.

The three patents listed above would be the only inventions that related to the Glen Paper Collar Company. Despite becoming one of the largest paper collar companies in the world, the fad died out in the mid-1870s, forcing the partners to shut down the collar factory.  Henry Mann went on to invent and patent an envelope-making machine. Local inventor Samuel Day constructed nine of the machines which were set up in the Blue Mill. The Mann Envelope Company operated for several years before closing down for unknown reasons.

In 1879 Horace Medbery moved to Mechanicville and rented the Howland Paper Mill, operating it for three years before organizing the Hudson River Water Power & Paper Company. He erected an 800 foot-long dam across the Hudson River using an estimated 3.5 million bricks. In this endeavor, Medbery is credited with establishing a valuable new industry for the city. Other businessmen noticed the success of his project, and soon permanent brick yards were established such as the Mechanicville Brick Company and the Best Brick Company.

For the next four years, Medbery acted as secretary and general manager of the paper mill. During that time, he patented two machines for molding tubes from paper pulp. In 1891 he patented a conduit for underground trolley wire using material that he claimed was water-proof, gas-proof, and “practically indestructible.” Later that year he submitted a patent for a pail-making machine, which manufactured pails using paper pulp. There is a reference in Sylvester’s History of Saratoga County that the Glen Paper Collar Company produced and sold these pails, so this patent is very likely based on that endeavor.

Over the next few years Medbery put several more of his inventions to good use. In 1892 he established the Fiberite Company, which manufactured fiber pipes for interior conduits used to wire buildings. The technology he developed in his seamless tube patents no doubt was applied to this line of work. He also began producing fiber pails using his pail-making machine, and later developed a substitute for hard rubber and celluloid. Medbery will go down in history as possessing more 19th century patents than any other Ballston native.

Born in 1826, Stephen Sanford worked with his father John and then on his own to create the Sanford carpet mills in Amsterdam. He went to West Point, served in Congress and was a friend of Ulysses S. Grant.

In the early twentieth century, thoroughbred horses owned by Sanford were walked each summer to Saratoga from Sanford’s Hurricana Farm. Racing Hall of Fame trainer Hollie Hughes, who served three generations of Sanfords, recalled the annual trek in Alex M. Robb’s book, “The Sanfords of Amsterdam.” 

The trip began at the Sanford horse farm on what is now Route 30 in the town of Amsterdam.  Efforts are underway to preserve remaining buildings at the complex, originally called Hurricana Farm but later known as the Sanford Stud Farm.

“First, we’d go up to Hagaman, a couple of miles away, and then we’d head for Top Notch, or West Galway, as it’s called,” Hughes said.  “That would be about five miles.  Then we’d go three miles straight east to Galway village.  Then we’d go to West Milton, about seven miles farther east, and there we’d stop at the old Dutch Inn and feed the horses and men.  My, those breakfasts tasted good!  By that time, it would be close to daylight.  On the way over, half the horses would be under saddle with boys up.  After breakfast the saddles were put on the others which had been led by the men up to this point, and we’d walk the remaining ten miles to Saratoga, coming in by Geyser Spring.”

In 1901, Sanford built his own stable on Nelson Avenue in Saratoga.  He had as many as 35 horses at a time.  When asked why he kept so many horses, the industrialist replied he was not in the horse racing business for “margin,” in other words for profit. 

From 1903 through 1907, the Sanfords invited the people of Amsterdam to the Sanford Matinee Races at Hurricana on the Sunday closest to Fourth of July.  Trolleys ran continuously up to Market and Meadow Streets.  From there, horse drawn wagons took people to the farm.  Some automobiles went to the farm as well but were not admitted to the grounds.  There was food, drink, music and, of course, horse racing. Some 15,000 attended the event during its last year.

New York State outlawed betting in 1907 and racing stopped at Saratoga.  Temporarily, the Sanfords sold most of their horses to out-of-staters and Canadians, according to Robb.

Stephen Sanford was blind the last five years of his life. The old gentleman doted on his grandchildren, in particular his namesake, born in 1899.  He gave the boy a Shetland pony almost before the youngster could walk.  Young Stephen called the pony Laddie.  The grandfather bestowed the nickname Laddie on his grandson as well. Sanford died on February 13, 1913.  Six months later, racing resumed at Saratoga along with the first running of the Sanford Memorial. 

Stephen’s 62-year-old son John continued to head the carpet mills and racing stables created during his father’s lifetime.  According to Robb, John Sanford inherited $40 million at his father’s death. 

Robb wrote, “Hollie Hughes recalls Stephen Sanford as a man with a magnetic personality, one to whom your eyes would turn instinctively, even though he was but one of a hundred men in a crowd.  Hollie describes him as tall, thin, straight as a ramrod, his chin (and the chin whiskers) carried high, his right arm across his back.  He had a dry wit.”

Bob Cudmore writes the weekly Focus on History column for the Daily Gazette. He is author of three Amsterdam area history books: Lost Mohawk Valley, Hidden History and Stories from the Mohawk Valley. Bob is the host of The Historians, a weekly podcast heard online at www.bobcudmore.com and on several area radio stations. He lives in Glenville and is a native of Amsterdam.

A version of this story first appeared in the Daily Gazette.

On April 18, 1777, the New York Provincial Convention received the following letter, dated two days previously:

“Dear Sir – Upon my arrival home , I found a letter from the chairman of the county committee, requesting the assistance of our militia to quell an insurrection of the tories in Ballstown, and upon inquiry found that the same spirit prevailed much in my regiment, to such a degree that it appears numbers have enlisted, and have taken the oath of secrecy and allegiance to the King of Great Britain, and that a regiment of royal volunteers is to be raised in the county of Albany, under the command of J. Hueston, as will appear by the enclosed; in consequence of which we have not complied with the request of the chairman.  Seventeen of the villains are now in confinement, and by the vigilance of our committee, and militia officers, hope soon to detect the whole and transmit to the Convention the proof that shall be collected.

I am, dear sir, in great haste, 

Yours, (signed) Robt. Van Rensselaer”

The Provincial Convention was the de facto Government of the Province of New York and Robert Van Rensselaer was Colonel of the 8th Regiment of the Militia of Albany County. Although trimmed and its borders optimized in 1772 with the creation of Tryon and Charlotte counties, Albany County was vast, including what are now Albany, Columbia, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady counties, large parts of Greene and Washington counties, and the disputed southwest corner of Vermont. The Town of Ballston at the time extended northward to the Hudson River in future Saratoga County.

In his letter, Col. Van Rensselaer, seems to have conflated two related but separate Loyalist (Tory) activities. One was the enlistment of loyalist regiments by James Hueston of Lunenberg, Albany County (now renamed Athens in Greene County). The other was a movement of about forty armed Loyalists under the leadership of brothers William and Thomas Frazer of Ballstown.

The Provincial Convention took immediate action in response to this doubly alarming intelligence (loyalists organizing and the County Militia being of doubtful allegiance). First, the terms of enlistment for the battalion of Hueston’s loyalist volunteers, together with copies of the oaths taken by them, was reviewed. Second, this information was sent to the commander of the Albany militia, requesting him to immediately convene a court martial for the trial of the offenders. Third, the committee of the county of Albany was instructed to assist the militia in apprehending suspects and collecting probative evidence.

James Hueston was apprehended, tried by court martial at Albany on June 14, 1777, found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. This sentence was confirmed by the Provincial Council of Safety (sitting during the adjournment of the Convention) on June 18, 1777.  Brig. General Abraham Ten Broek was ordered to have the sentence carried out. (Whether the sentence was subsequently commuted, as was common, history seems not to divulge.)

The case of the Frazer brothers and their armed band ended rather differently. On or about May 1, 1777, they had been seen moving around in the woods and on the trails near Ballstown, but were spooked by news of the impending arrival of Patriot militia. The latter force comprised detachments from the 12th Albany County militia and Captain Coggsdel’s company of “Continental Troops,” neither apparently beset by doubtful loyalties, under the command of local officers, Lt. Colonel James Gordon and the ferociously named Captain Tyrranus Collins. They had been requested to investigate by Hezekiah Middlebrook of the Ballstown committee.

The Frazers and their men concluded that they should make a break for the safety of British Forces located at Crown Point on Lake Champlain. Using a Native American trail, the group marched north, camping near a lake in the nearby mountains which they named Lake Desolation. But they only reached Lake Luzerne before they were apprehended by the troops led by Gordon and Collins. The Frazers were tried by court martial at Albany on May 24 and May 28, 1777, were convicted of levying war against New York and sentenced to 12 months in prison.

Of the remaining 38 members of the loyalist group, only 17 were tried by court martial at Albany on May 30, 1777. Eleven of these men were from Ballstown – Thomas Verte, Joseph Shearer, Alexander McLaughlin, John Mickle, John Fairman, Archibald McNeill, John Summerville, James Grant, John Burns, Michael Connor and John McLaughlin. They were convicted but sentenced to each pay a 15-dollar fine, after which payment they would be released. But the Frazers and their men, supposedly with the help of William’s wife, were able to escape from jail at Albany before any fines were paid and subsequently decamped to the advancing forces of Burgoyne at Fort Edward.

Thus ended the “Insurrection of 1777” in the town of Ballstown, with the action in this area moving on to a much more significant turning point at the Battle of Saratoga.

My father was employed as an Administrator at the Mount McGregor Veterans Rest Camp, upon his discharge from the Army. Mom was a Registered Nurse at the Camp Infirmary. I lived on Mount McGregor from April 1946, the day I arrived in my mother’s arms, until I left for Boy Scout Camp Saratoga in July 1960. Five boys and one girl within 2 years of my age lived on Mount McGregor during that time. We were a loosely knit mostly outdoor group.

One morning, waiting for the Camp bus to take me to Kindergarten, I wandered off to the blueberry patch behind a neighbor’s cottage. Kneeling in the patch, eating the berries, a Black Racer snake slithered in front of my knees. Wide-eyed, I confirm it was at least 30 feet long taking 1 1/2 hours to pass. Upon its departure I scurried to school with a less than amused bus driver.

School was in Wilton. A two-classroom building. A basement cafeteria also served as the Kindergarten Room, Mrs. Hubinsky supervising both. Miss Hyatt’s classroom had Grades 1, 2 and 3. Mr. Gainer’s classroom had Grades 4 and 5. When our grade level was not being taught, we put our heads down on the desk, thereby enhancing our education in a previous grade or being introduced to a future grade. We enjoyed classes in PE, music and art from travelling teachers.

Home was a sizeable three-bedroom apartment in a six plex cottage across from Artist Lake. The Veterans Camp was largely self-sufficient with a sizable farm in the valley below. I have no memory of going to a grocery store. Mom would simply call the “commissary” for delivery of vegetables, beef, pork, poultry, baked goods, milk etc. Mom “canned” food for the winter. The basement had a large coal fired boiler. The coal served as encouragement for good behavior, lest a chunk take space in our Christmas Stocking. We were good kids – for the most part.

Unconstrained in our roaming through the forests and populated areas of the mountain, we hiked the rough roads and trails to Lake Bonita, Lake Anna, Sunset Rock, Northern and Grants Lookout and bushwhacked to countless other destinations. Inspired by Huckleberry Finn we lashed a log raft together on “Secret Swamp.” Daniel Boone inspired us to start a log cabin behind Lake Anna. Falling trees with our two-man crosscut saw and axes we laid the base logs and started the second row before deciding home was OK. We enjoyed Lake Bonita with its abundant blueberries. Trout were visible in the crystal-clear waters along the shores. Lake Bonita was the Camp’s water source – fishing not allowed. 

We fished in Artist Lake for Goldfish also catching by hand frogs, tadpoles, turtles, newts, red efts, snakes and bumble bees. A terrarium at home often housed pollywogs growing into frogs before release. We rode our single speed bikes throughout the hills and occasionally down to friends in Wilton, pedaling back up the mountain without a stop. The Camp had many amenities including a movie theater. Our parents brought us to films such as “White Christmas,” Randolph Scott westerns and others. We were banned from any sight of the theater building when Elizabeth Taylor’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” played. Winter was a time for ice skating on Artist Lake, sleigh rides with our Flexible Flyers down the road to Lake Bonita and snow forts. We served as altar boys in the Camp Chapel and pinsetters for the Camp Bowling Alley.

We interacted freely with the “patients” playing softball on the site of Hotel Balmoral, swimming in Artist Lake with lessons in cannon balls and diving from the patients, shuffleboard under the terrace, crafts (copper reliefs, bead and leather work) in the Occupational Therapy shop. “Raccoon Man” visited a couple of summers hand-feeding raccoons who would crawl up his panted leg, accept food with their paws, returning to the ground to eat. Sitting next to him I fed the raccoons, no sudden movements with trust by all. Frank Malzone’s (Boston Red Sox Third Baseman) father was a patient we came to know. We received autographed baseballs after his departure. I met Vets from the Spanish American War, WWI, WW2, Korean and Lebanon Conflicts. They, as my father – a Medic in Europe, never spoke of their experiences.

We visited Mrs. Gambino, caretaker at Grant’s Cottage, and frequented Grant’s Lookout. We discovered a deteriorating iron-sided bench with wood strips at the base of a huge boulder down the mountain. We knew this was where President Grant spent his quiet moments. A cherished secret, as we knew, no one else knew

Life was idyllic. The only childhood I knew – as it is for everyone, particularly of that era. Mostly unencumbered by TV (a 1950’s 12-inch B & W screen with 2 snowy channels). No social media – we listened to the radio as a family occasionally. Wilton Cub & Boy Scouts the only organized youth activity available. All boys belonged. My earliest memory of American politics was attentively listening to the inaugural address of General Eisenhower. Recognizing I did not understand a word he said, I adjourned outside to build a snow fort in my “Glickmans” snowsuit. Red & Black Wool – Head to Toe.