Schenectady County Historical Society NewsletterVolume 36 - Number 9-10 May - June 2000 32 Washington Avenue, Schenectady, New York 12305 (518) 374-0263

Schenectady County Historical Society Newsletter

Volume 36 - Number 9-10 May - June 2000
32 Washington Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12305 (518) 374-0263
Web site: http://www.schist.org Editor email: slbvs@earthlink.net
Librarian email: librarian@schist.org FAX: (208) 361 5305

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CALENDAR

Saturday, May 13, 2000

1:30: Refreshments

2:00: Program: America's Song: Yankee Doodle

Presenter: Stuart Murray

Tuesday, May 16, 2000

Board of Trustees Meeting

7:30 PM

May 24, 2000

1:15 PM

Installation of Officers

Women's Auxiliary

Saturday, June 3, 2000

Stockade Sidewalk Sale

June 18, 2000

Third Annual Forefathers' Day

Time: the afternoon

Place: The Mabee Farm

June 20, 2000

Board of Trustees Meeting

7:30 PM

Friday, June 23 from 3-8 PM

Saturday, June 24 from 10 AM-4PM

Secret Gardens of the Stockade

FROM THE PRESIDENT'S DESK

Someone must have heard of my problem understanding Beowulf. The response, within a couple of months, was a New Edition. The newspaper has given it good press and indicated it was a "best seller" in England. Best sellers must come in different categories; there seem to be so many of them. And probably not too much competition in the 1000 years-or-older epic category.

I'm not going to rush out and buy the new version since I already have two copies of the old one. Maybe the library will be getting a copy. I'll check. An editorial in the Sarasota, FL, newspaper gave a quote from the old version, but didn't compare it with the new. They're probably waiting on the library too. In the old version the quote was "Hyran scolde, Gomban Gylan: Þaet waes God cyning." I've probably confused this by adding the capital letters. I think it helps to say it out loud. But don't ask me. Let's keep checking your friendly library.

Did you notice above how I kind of implied that we've been in Florida recently? The past two years we have had a winter vacation in Sarasota. Sarasota was the winter home of the Ringling Brothers Circus. John Ringling's house and art museum are a must-see in Sarasota. At least once. John Ringling liked things showy and this included his house and art collection. He bought art works by the carload and collected so much stuff that he had to build a museum to house it all. It was big art so it took big rooms, and lots of them.

We checked out our competition two years ago. The house, Ca d'Zan, was open, but the furnishings were in storage because they were refurbishing the building. The house was due to reopen in 1999. Well, in 1999 the house was "closed" because they had found asbestos. This is especially interesting because the asbestos had already been cleaned up ten years ago. The promised reopening was in 2000. And in March 2000 they are still closed and starting a state investigation into museum finances. Reopening "may" be next year. And we thought the month it took to refurbish the Vrooman Room and Jackson House parlors was a long time.

You never see anyone go into the water in Florida. Well, hardly ever. Beach walking is "in" and swimming must be out-of-fashion. I go out for a stroll on the beach each morning about 7:30. Greet a rabbit or two that stands guard at the entrance to the beach, and scrunch my way over to the firmer sand adjacent to the water edge.

Beach walkers are an uncommunicative group of people. No one wants to speak to you for fear they'll break the mood. The same people will say "good morning" if they pass you on the sidewalk, just a few feet away. I'm really not a slow walker. Just ask my wife. But on the beach . . . Well, I play this game. I count all the people whom I pass going in my same direction. People standing still or playing catch with their dog don't count. So far I'm batting zero.

I gave up counting people who passed me going the same direction. Too many of them. I tried to keep up with the "normal" walkers (as opposed to power walkers and joggers). It was too much like work. You could say I was feeling my age, except many of those who pass me by are of my vintage or older. This is not good for one's ego.

Bill Dimpelfeld

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A THING OF BEAUTY . . . A LOVELY ADDITION

We hope you've had a chance to see the newly spiffed up Vrooman Room with the new, non-wiggly floor and the handsome new rug. Not to mention the freshly refurbished floor in the music room and the Yates parlor. But let's let Jo tell us about the latter.

We have had a great transformation on the first floor of the house, due to the generosity of Blaine Johnston and Donald Smith. Their donation of a large oriental rug to replace the old rather dirty carpet we removed makes the front parlor look elegant and very turn-of-the-century.

Through the years Blaine and Don have given a number of interesting additions to our museum. One of my favorites is the ivory upholstered wing chair by the fireplace, also in the front parlor. Although the chair is a reproduction it lends interest to the tour of the house, when people are told this type of Windsor chair was also one of the first types of "potty chairs" -- commode or chamber chairs. Circa 1725. Potty chairs were not first made for training babies but for the ladies and gentlemen of quality. These chairs were not used in the bedrooms, but the front parlor, study and music rooms.

Most students remark, "You've got to be kidding," but when they realize there were no accommodations such as lavatories and bathrooms they are in awe.

Thank you, Blaine and Don for your generosity. I'm sure Dora Jackson would be very pleased.

Jo Mordecai - Coordinator of Exhibits

MARCH PROGRAM

Howard Bliss brought a wealth of experience and observation to his topic: Architecture in the Mohawk Valley: A Roving Eye. Howard has a splendid collection of slides of different architectural features in the Mohawk Corridor. After his excellent presentation, a member of the audience suggested that we should all take a trip up the Mohawk and see these beauties for ourselves.

APRIL PROGRAM

George Terwilliger, a member of the Alco Historic Photograph group, presented a program, illustrated with photographs from the Alco archive. Mr. Terwilliger pointed out that this year is the sesquicentennial celebration of the making of the first locomotives in Schenectady, and 2001 will be the centenniel celebration of the founding of Alco. A great program for all us railroad buffs.

MAY PROGRAM

Heads up for this one. Stuart Murray is going to tell us all about his book which is about the song, "Yankee Doodle"; he'll take us on a journey showing "Yankee Doodle" in its various manifestations through American history. The book cover says, "American's Song skillfully traces our country's military and political history through the constantly evolving lyrics of the inveterate tune, "Yankee Doodle/" It provides an informative and illuminating insight into the values and bawdy humor of America's rank and file during this formative period." Bring your wallets; it sounds like a good book to buy and have autographed for a gift to a dear one.

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MUSEUM NEWS

The small exhibit in the Vrooman Room celebrates Easter with an interesting collection of turn-of-the-Century Easter postcards, most of which have been donated by Wayne Harvey, an avid collector of many things.

Postcards were economical: not only were they cheap to buy, but only needed a 1cent stamp to mail. People sent cards not only to their families but to friends and trades people -- often sent as "From Guess Who."

Easter in America has become commercial as has Christmas. I sent an Easter card to my sister in England last year and was surprised with her reaction: "Jo, we haven't received an Easter card since Lynn was small." As Lynn is now 42 years old that certainly reflects a change in the times.

Another Easter tradition that has somewhat got out of hand is hot cross buns. I have been eating these spicy buns for the last month and Easter is still two weeks away. By the time Good Friday comes along I will probably be sick of them. When I was growing up in England, Good Friday was the only day one had hot cross buns. Bakers would deliver their buns nice and warm on trays very early in the morning to each customer who had ordered them. This was accompanied by the ringing of a handbell.

Good Friday was the only day of the year my father would get up and make a nice pot of tea. He would take Mother a tray of tea and buns and then my sister Ann and I would have our tray. Lovely luxury! Tea and hot cross buns in bed served by Daddy.

About an hour later we would have breakfast: generally eggs, ham with Hovis bread and bananas. There was no Easter Bunny, but the Easter Chicken was very popular; also little live fuzzy chicks were often purchased and kept in the garden.

Oh well, we all have memories and it's very nice to recollect, but there is also so much to replace in this day and age. Hopefully my family will remember my little quirks and traditions of things shared at Easter and all year through, happily and with a smile.

I hope you enjoyed your holiday.

Jo Mordecai

From Your House to Our House

The following articles have been generously donated to our House Museum.

Donor: Wayne Harvey: Collection of turn of the century Easter Postcards

Donor: Edward Bleau: Two skillfully made models of (A.) Old Ironsides (The Constitution) and

(B) the Cutty Sark

Donor: Wayne Harvey: Schenectady Union Star Coin Card and envelope. Circa 1943

Donor: Bob Elwell: A Gentleman's suit: Tail coat, vest and trousers. The suit once belonged to Stephen Stamford of the Stamford Rug Co. Circa 1890

Also a band uniform, navy serge, worn by Mr. Elwell in the 1930's. All in very good condition.

Thank you!

Jo Mordecai

LIBRARY POTPOURRI

We are still looking for family histories and Bible records. These can be sent in by fax if you wish.

And our Fax: (208) 361 - 5305

List of Acquisitions

Settlers of the Beekman Patent, vol. 5 (Fackert to Haas)

Fort Orange Records, 1656-1678, trans. by Charles Gehring

Names, Names and more Names: Locating your Dutch ancestors in Colonial America, Kelly, Arthur C

Church Records: Gilboa Reformed Church; Blenheim Reformed Church; Methodist Churches of Rhinebeck; Prattsville Dutch Reformed; Christ Lutheran Church, Ghent; Reformed Churches of Ghent, Mount Pleasant, W. Ghent, Greenport and Stuyvesant Falls; Low Dutch church of Klyn Esopus, Ulster Park; Reformed Church, Shokan.

Small Family Cemeteries, Town of Wright, Schoharie Co.

Marriages in New Lebanon, NY. Rev. Silas Churchill, 1795 - 1851

An Introduction to Washington County, New York.

CD's:

Genealogical Records: Index to Upstate New York Source Records, 1685 - 1910

Documentary History of the State of New York, O'Callaghan

Updated: Maybee Family Genealogy in Personal Ancestral File 3

GIFTS TO THE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES

DONOR ITEMS

Christopher Hunter Master's Thesis: A Civil War Private - James Wadsworth

Anonymous Book: The Descendants of Roger Mills

Wayne Harvey Books and pamphlets: Nijkerk

Archives of the First Unitarian Society Book: Liberal Religion in the City of Light Sally van Schaick Family Records: Brown and Logan

Schenectady Women's Club SWC: Records, yearbooks, photo albums

Frank Terwelp Two photographs: State Street, early 1900's

Ruth Hand Various family and cemetery records, books, prints

Ann Bowerman Book: Van Slyke family in America

Elliess Riemer Book: History of Albany and Schenectady Counties

Nancy Curran Indexes of marriages, death notices, obituaries Schenectady Gazette 1999

Albany County Mayflower Society Books: Mayflower Families, vol. 11 - Doty: vol. 19 - Thomas Rogers

STROLLING THROUGH THE ARCHIVES ON A RAINY DAY . . .

We are working on indexing the files of Legal Matters, some 4000 of them. We've gotten

up to #392. You should know that the Legal Matters are filed according to date of acquisition which makes for a glorious jumble of times and events. Here's the rest of Arent Bradt, plus more about thr spirited Schermerhorns.

By William B. Efner, former City Historian

Arent Bradt was a colorful figure. In some respects he was the counterpoint of Schermerhorn, to whom he was related by marriage. He was arbitrary, arrogant and unconcerned, it would seem, about public opinion. Charged with mismanagement of the trust and called upon to make a "clear statement" of all lands conveyed to himself, his children and other members of the family, he dismissed the intimation of wrong-doing without the twitch of a facial muscle, shunting aside the charges with unruffled temper, despite the furor his managerial acts had created in the community.

It was during Bradt's term as lone surviving trustee that Jan Schermerhorn, son of Ryer, the old trustee, and his heir, threw the township into a frenzy by making claim to a large block of the remaining 50-odd-thousand acres of common lands. Jan insisted on carving the unconveyed land into 27 equal parts, one part to go to each of the settlers here at the time of the signing of the Dongan Patent or their heirs. Jan maintained the use of the word "inhabitants" in the patent--"on the behalf of the inhabitants of the Towne"--applied solely to the original settlers of the town of 1684.

Jan Schermerhorn's claim was a novel one. None of the first settlers or their heirs had hitherto made a similar demand upon the trustees; that is, prior to 1750, when Jan exploded his legal theory which literally tore the township apart.

Jan died before his claim reached the colonial courts but Ryer the second, his son and heir, initiated litigation which was not only carried through court after court but through the general assembly without a decision. Ryer died in 1795, and with him passed his claim to fortune and fame. Like his grandfather, the trustee of 1684, the deceased claimant was a man of "great energy of character, business tact and stubborn perseverance," and something of a gambler at heart.

Under the law of primogeniture, then on the statute books of the colony, those only who descended "in the line of the eldest son" would have benefited from the Jan Schermerhorn mover. One share in those 50,000 unconveyed acres was then worth the tidy sum of 1,500 pounds, a lot of money in 1750; and Ryer, the second, owned four and one-sixth shares, by inheritance and purchase.

While the case was still in the courts revolution swept the land, as well as the law of primogeniture from the statute books, so that at the time of Ryer the second's death in 1795 instead of 27 descendants "in the line of the eldest son" there were some 600 interested offspring. These, like the newcomers to the township were now interested in cleaning the administrative wreckage of the past managers and securing for the town an efficient and beneficial form of government, which was accomplished by charter in 1798.

Bibliography:

Minutes of the Common Lands, Vol. 2, Schenectady County Historical Society Archives.

The Schenectady Patent, Jonathan Pearson

MABEE FARM PROJECT [three pictures in actual newsletter]

Fund Raising

The Mabee Farm Committee is pleased to announce receipt last month of a check for $10,000 from the State Parks Department for a shake roof on the Dutch barn, arranged for by our good friend Senator Hugh Farley.

Soon after came another check for $10,000 from Mrs. Adeline Graham, acting for the Trustees of the Wright Family Foundation. The Wright Family are our good neighbors to the east, in the guise of Schenectady International, a major Schenectady employer.

Those two generous gifts put us in spitting distance of raising the $150,000 needed to qualify for an additional $50,000 from the Schenectady Foundation under the terms of its challenge grant. A $17,5000 check from George Franchere, our continuing benefactor, carried us over the hurdle. From now until December 31, every dollar donated to the Mabee Farm Project will earn it another 33 cents from the Schenectady Foundation.

Mabee Farm Construction Work

Preservation work leads the Mabee Farm project news through the summer. In March, Rob Petito of J. Waite Associates, Albany preservation architects, put the State approved specifications for restoration of the "brick house"(Slave Quarters) out for bids. Opened in early April they ranged from $48,00 to twice that amount. After evaluation, the contract will be awarded the lowest responsible bidder.

The problems of the building lie partly in how it developed. Starting perhaps as a cellar-hole, fur-trading post built by Daniel Janse van Antwerpen by about 1670, it may not have been used much after the stone farmhouse was built until the time the inn was built. Then two above-ground stories were added to it to house slaves and farm servants and/or family members. Both the inn and the "brick house" have been dated to about 1730. Dirt from the cellar holes seems to have been spread about all three buildings to prevent the flooding which occurred before barge canal construction deepened the river's channel.

The "brick house" is mis-named, however. Two sides are of wood-frame with three corner posts, while the sides a visitor sees are brick with no corner post. Time and weather have rotted the corner bricks (see photos) and the weight of the roof and snow loads have cracked the walls. The work contracted will rebuild the corner and insert steel cables to hold the bricks together. While restoration work goes on, archaeologists, on separate contract, will research the layers of fill down to the foundations to try to prove the development and date it. The two contracts and their administrative charges will expend most of the $80,000 balance in the State Parks department grant.

Barnyard restoration work focuses on the 52 x 54 foot Nilson Dutch barn. The foundations and sills are in, all timbers are repaired and on site, and the six bents are assembled and wait for the ground to harden so a crane can come in to raise them and the purlin plates. Steve Swift of Restoration Supply is determined to complete his work in August.

In parallel, volunteers under Everett Rau will put two more new sills under the 20 x 26 foot English barn now on County lands to the west, and prepare for moving to the barnyard in June. Keith Cramer is the architect designing a "comfort shed" with a heated office/workroom and two handicapped accessible toilets to attach to the English barn. Cramer reviewed a preliminary site plan with the Rotterdam planning commission and will prepare specifications for the work. The "comfort shed" should be finished by the end of August.

Program and Activities

The Mabee Farm Committee is starting to plan for its fund raiser the afternoon of Sunday, June 18th, the Farm's Annual Forefathers' Day Celebration (on Fathers' Day). The usual Dutch treats and good food will be served, costumed Dutch dancers will dance, artisans will ply their arts, young folks will play Dutch games joined by those who are no so young, and refreshments will keep folds refreshed and lively. Progress on the construction projects will, of course, be explained and will interest many.

So mark that date, June 18th PM, on your calendars.

SQUARE DANCING, FIDDLE TUNES AND DITTIES

by Bill Massoth

At the turn-of-the-century, (18th to 19th that is) a new dance craze called the quadrille swept Europe. It was performed by four couples positioned in a square configuration called a "set." Each dance was called a tip, and generally three tips were performed together. This too was called a "set."

The quadrille was soon-to-be exported to America, and if you lived in one of the big cities on the east coast and were wealthy, you could go to a dance master and learn how to dance the quadrille. When the quadrille was performed in public, the dance master acted as a prompter.

These old-time dance masters were also their own choreographers, and many times they composed music that was used in dancing the quadrille. Some of that original music is still around today: Ticknor's Quadrille 1; Ticknor's Quadrille 2; and Ticknor's Quadrille 3 ate some tunes that come to mind. Did you know that the composer Johann Strauss composed music to the quadrille? His son did too.

In America the early settlers had neither the time nor the money to go to school to learn how to dance, and so the square dance same into being. The prompter was replaced by a caller who actually told the dancers what to do. Many times someone who was dancing in a set would give the calls for that set. Sometimes, with the aid of a megaphone, a caller would shout out calls for the whole hall. The calls were simple such as alemande left - grand right and left - swing your partner - promenade.

As time went on the singing call was developed, and after the advent of sound reinforcement equipment a caller could call to a large group of people -- sometimes in the hundreds. Calls became fancy and "patter" was added so the earlier call became the "alemande left your corner date, and a right to your partner, with a right and left eight, go away round, go way home, and when you get home you swing your own, and when you get straight you promenade eight."

Any excuse was used to a square dance: a barn raising, a fence building bee, a logging bee, a stone picking bee, a husking bee, etc. Always followed by a barn dance.

As our population moved west, so did the square dance. Square dancing became localized and different from on area to another. Finally it got to the West Coast and a new square dancing evolved, call "Western-style Square Dancing, High-level Square Dancing, or Modern Square Dancing." It traveled back across the continent to where it had started from over a century and a half before. Wouldn't you know, you had to go to school to learn how to square dance? Clean overalls and clean boots were no longer acceptable. A proper dress code was enforced. Dancers were required to do the dance right. No longer could you learn to square dance by dancing on the "tail end" of the set. As my old grandmother would say, "What goes around, comes around." But it is fun anyway.

The fiddle was the music of choice for square dancing; it could be accompanied by almost any other instrument. Some fiddlers sat down and clogged with their feet to provide accompaniment. If the dance was held at the meeting house, as it often was, there was a piano to accompany the fiddler.

Fiddlers would often compose fiddle tunes. Some were named after the ladies such as "Miss McLeod's Reel," "Sally Ann," and "Black-eyed Susie." Some fiddle tunes were named for the men, such as "Billy in the Low Ground," "Old Joe Clark," "Old Dan Tucker." Some fiddle tunes were named after occupations such as "The Irish Washer Woman," "Waggoner," or "Johnny Waggoner," or "Tennessee Waggoner," depending on the location. "Sawyer" or "Mississippi Sawyer" is another tune that was called by a different name depending upon the location in which it was played. "The Sailors' Hornpipe" was another occupational tune.

Then there were the "Joys": "Soldiers' Joys" (Sir William Johnson's favorite tune), "The Joys of Quebec," "The Joys of Wedlock; and then there were "roads." "The Road to Boston," "The Road to the Isles," and "The Road to Columbus" are examples. Some fiddle tunes had really weird names like "Whiskey Before Breakfast," and "Smash the Glass" (what the fiddler did after drinking whiskey before breakfast). Also there were "The Crooked Stove Pipe" and "The Little Burnt Potato" and "Sugar in the Gourd" along with "The Chinese Breakdown."

Baby sitters were unheard of back then. Grandma and Grandpa would go to the dance also and so the little tykes were taken along with them. The tykes were put into the back room in the meeting house where one of the women or older girls would watch over them. The watchers would sometimes sing to keep the little ones happy or to put them to sleep. It was almost impossible to sing to a tune other than what the fiddlers was playing and so they made up silly words to go with the fiddle tunes. These were called ditties.

Now if I ask you to him, whistle or sing "Old Zip Coon," you wouldn't do it. However if I ask you to sing "Turkey in the Straw" you could belt out the tune of "Old Zip Coon" with no trouble at all. "Turkey in the Straw" is only one of the many ditties written to "Old Zip Coon."

Try this ditty to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw."

I tried to milk

But I didn't know how;

So I milked a pumpkin

And set on a cow.

A monkey sitting

In a pile of straw

And he winked his eye

At his mother-in-law.

Some old fiddle tunes had words written to them years later. The old tune "Bonaparte's Retreat" had a set of words written to it back in the '40's. About 30 years ago a young man named Johnny Driftwood wrote a song called "The Battle of New Orleans" to the tune of "The Eighth of January," a tune written to commemorate the battle of New Orleans on January *, 1814. "Soldiers' Joy" also had a set of words written for it.

Bill Massoth has been calling square dances for over 50 years. He has traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast and north of the border into Canada, attending Fiddle frolics. This year we will be going to Murfreesboro TN to attend Uncle Dave Macon days, where he will hear fiddle contests, banjo contests, guitar contests, and witness the world champion clogging contests and buck dancing contests. Ed. Note.

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CAPITAL DISTRICT GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

At a recent meeting it was decided to meet twice a year, Spring and Fall, instead of monthly. The next meeting will be announced later. We will however continue to work on compiling information about ethnic groups and collecting family histories, both for the Grems-Doolittle Library.

Members will man a booth at the Festival of Nations held at the Schenectady Museum on May 13 from 10AM to 4 PM. Library brochures and other hand-outs will be available.

Members also planned to visit the New York State Library on Tuesday, May 2, to do individual genealogical research.

Pedigree forms consisting of four generations are available via the Capital District Genealogical Society upon request.

Elsie M. Maddaus

Chairperson

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HOLLYWOOD IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK

by John Duncan

John Duncan is back with another of his great essays.

History confirms that the men and women of the Capital District area were true pioneers in the entertainment business, and this embraces not only radio and television, but motion pictures as well.

Soon after the launching of KDKA in Pittsburgh, WGY in Schenectady started its powerful 50,000 watt broadcasting career. The date was February 20, 1922. Before long, her powerful cross country signal was augmented by several short-wave stations, which won further notice with their broadcasts to Admiral Byrd at his South Pole site.

Several major network jobs were won by WGY staffers, including Dave Garroway and Jimmy Wallington, while the

primitive crystal sets gave way to good-sized radio sets.

Many years later, I recall my older brother having a friendly date with a Miss Alexanderson, and upon his return to our home relating that her father had demonstrated a box that actually contained a moving picture. Yes, that was Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, a co-inventor of television. That same year there was a demonstrations of this new device in GE building 36, perhaps the forerunner of WRGB.

Early on, Thomas Alva Edison was somewhat more interested in his invention of the phonograph, but later urged his friends at both General Electric and Ford to seize the opportunity to make effective use of motion pictures.

As early as 1894 Edison had come up with a projection device called a Kinetoscope. Both Ford and General Electric became busy with motion picture efforts. In 1912, a GE team of Ed Jones, John Schwem, and Charlie Bateholtz shot some 4,000 feet of film showing a GE powered engine hauling a train across some western mountain ranges, while in April of 1914 Ford release the film "How Henry Ford Builds One Thousand Cars a Day."

That same year, GE issued three films, extolling the virtues of GE motors, a second film about their lamp bulbs, and a third film somewhat less commercial concerning the Panama Canal.

In 1915, GE's Ed Jones, John Schwem and others produced "Back to the Farm," and "The Home electrical" -- the first portraying the benefits of a real electric wringer washing machine, electric fans and electric automobiles, while "Home Electrical" showed the young married couple made happy thanks to a vast array of home appliances, including a huge cigar lighter; and closing the story with the romantic couple sitting on their sofa beneath the glow of a primitive room heater.

In 1919, a young GE engineer named C. A. Hoxie came up with progress in another area, securing several patents for a sound system which would be synchronous with a motion picture. He called this equipment the "Palophotophone," and thanks in part to this technology, General Electric produced short sound motion pictures more than a year before Holly wood featured Al Jolson with sound in "The Jazz Singer" in 1927.

In later years, GE people concentrated on other areas of technology, but didn't hesitate about hiring Hollywood celebraties to sell their appliance wares. In the 1930's, for example, the wonders of the GE all-electric kitchen appliances were touted in a short subject featuring Warren Williams, Bette Davis and Dick Powell, prints of which are now, alas, gone forever.

More to come next issue! We'd like to add the name of John Bellamy Taylor who in addition to being the father of Telford Taylor also had much to do with the developing of sound in motion pictures and with the invention of "time lapse photography" which enables us to watch the flowering of a plant or the metamorphasis of a caterpillar to a butterfly.

WE GET LETTERS . . .

Dear SCHS -

The Can You Guess building on Page seven of this month's newsletter is very dear to me and needs a little clarification. First your use of the word "was" is disconcerting as it is still alive and in relatively good health. It is a schoolhouse located on Mariaville Road (not Princetown Road) about 1/2 mile east of Rynex Corners. It is in need of paint and some floor boards, but the structure is sound and the roof is new. The same cannot be said of the coal shed (on the left in the picture) which has pretty well rotted away. The boards on the front of the building at the top were replaced by me in the mid 1960's after they were pulled off (along with the electric service in a big ice storm.

This is an old country schoolhouse which has an important place in my family's history. My grandfather went there to school until about 1901 when he was 13 and moved into Schenectady to work. I suspect his parents went there too. My grandfather's Uncle Andrew was a trustee . . . . My father was on the school board when the school was consolidated into the Schalmont District.

Thanks for your very interesting newsletter.

Thomas A Gifford

Scotia, NY

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT

Wanted! Copies of Family Bible Records for our Family Files. You could FAX them to us!

P.S. We don't really want whole Bibles! We'd also like more family histories. These can be a few pages or a whole book.

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Wanted!

Someone to do filing in the library. Our librarian can never catch up.

Great opening for volunteer with unsatisfied clerical lust! Call librarian at 374-0263

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Wanted!

Someone to do data entry on one of our wonderful computers. You do not have to be a computer geek; you just need enthusiasm for the work of the society plus the ability to follow directions. Call librarian at 374-0263

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Wanted!

A real extrovert to organize boat and bus trips. There are wonderful places to go around here, but all the board members are maxed out and we need fresh blood, verve, muscle and know-how to plan trips. Call office at 374-0263

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Wanted!

A grant writer. We know the grants are out there; we just need that certain person with the time to ferret out where the grants are hidden so we can continue to enhance the work of the Society. Call President or office manager at 374-0263

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Wanted!

Docents. A docent is a tour guide. We're running out of docents and we want fresh troops. Come now: you know that you've always secretly wanted to show people around the Museum. Follow Jo or Sally or Wayne or Ann a time or two and you'll get the hang of it. Call Jo Mordecai at 374-926 for further information.

NEW ADVERTISEMENT!

Wanted!

Occasional people to act as receptionists on Saturday mornings as we go into our new Saturday morning program. We envision rotating volunteers on a once-a-month basis for Saturday AM duty either at receptionists or museum docents or both. Speak to the office manager at 374-0263

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Advertisement

Secret Gardens of the Stockade

A Window of Opportunity to visit the most enchanting places in the Stockade.

A Tour to raise funds to enhance the Public Places in the Stockade.

Tickets: (before June 23 $12.50) Call 346-5735 or 372 6039

Tickets: (June 23 and 24): available at Arthur's Market, Front and

Ferry Streets, and First Reformed Church, North Church Street.

In addition to the tour itself, there will be other activities. On Friday evening, June 23, Rudy Grant, owner of Experience

on Jay Street, will offer a demonstration.

On Saturday, June 24, the Hugh Platt Garden Club will demonstrate flower arranging.

Arrangements made by Club members will be on display in the Vrooman Room.

CONTRIBUTORS DURING FEBRUARY AND MARCH 2000

Without you we are nothing!

FOUNDATIONS

The Walter S. Quinlan Foundation

Carlilian Foundation

BUSINESS SUSTAINING

Trustco Bank

BUSINESS SPONSOR

Pattersonville Telephone Company

Stewart's

The Hudson City Savings Institution