Suffragist, gelatin tycoon, dignitaries have local ties

JOHNSTOWN — Sure, Sir William Johnson founded Johnstown, the Colonial City. But many other notables followed.

Some had tenuous connections to the city, marrying into a local family or just visiting, perhaps. Others were full-time denizens who went on to greatness.

Take city native Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the suffragist. She fought for women’s right to vote and was also an abolitionist.

She had other causes, too, including the promotion of fair divorce laws and ensuring that women had equal rights when it came to owning property.

Johnstown also produced a governor, Enos Throop, a state attorney general, Matthias Hildreth, and a best-selling author, Grace Livingston Hill.

Between 1887 and 1949, Hill penned more than 100 romance novels and short story collections that sold four million copies.

“Some of them still go out. But you know how fiction changes,” local librarian Deb Callery said.

Then there was Rose Markward Knox, another pioneering woman who took over her late husband’s gelatin company in 1908 under the guise that her son was actually running the show.

“Women didn’t run businesses back then,” Callery said.

Callery, who is in charge of the local history collection at the Johnstown Public Library, said the boy, named Charles after his father, was still in grade school at the time.

“Nobody in New York [City] thought anything of it. They all thought he was an adult,” Callery said with a chuckle.

While young Charles tended to his studies, his mother went about revolutionizing industry.

She introduced the five-day work week and two weeks of paid vacation each year. And she did away with the back entrance that factory workers had used previously. Under her management, all employees entered through the front door, whether it be the president of the company or the person who sweeps the floor.

Rose Knox’s gifts to the community were numerous.

There are Knox Field and Knox Junior High School. She also donated the pool to the Johnstown YMCA, the statue of Sir William Johnson at the start of Hall Avenue, the Willing Helpers Home for Women, the bells at St. Anthony’s Church and the chimes at the First Presbyterian Church. She gave young brides bouquets for their weddings. And the list goes on.

Knox died in 1950. The Knox Mansion, now a privately owned bed-and-breakfast, was just named to the state and national registers of historic places. Carville-National Leather occupies the old Knox Gelatine Co. building.

“They closed down most of Johnstown when she died. Schools closed; businesses closed,” Callery said of a city in mourning.

Political, military

City Historian Noel Levee provided information on many other notables, including Throop, who pursued a career in law in Auburn before entering politics.

“Right after the Revolution, you’ve got a new nation, government is bristling. And this dinky little town was a hotbed,” Levee said.

The late Fulton County Historian “Lew Decker always said [Throop] wasn’t born in Johnstown, he was born in Kingsboro [present-day northeast Gloversville]. But his family moved to Johnstown, and he was educated at the Johnstown Academy,” Levee said.

He was Martin Van Buren’s lieutenant governor when Van Buren quit March 12, 1829, two months into his term to serve as secretary of state for President Andrew Jackson.

Throop, a Republican, assumed the top state post. His two major accomplishments were the elimination of debtors’ prison and the establishment of state mental institutions.

Ever hear of Commodore Silas Talbot, who bought Johnson Hall after the Revolution?

“During the 1790s, President Washington gave him a commission in the U.S. Navy. He had been an Army officer in the Revolution but was always big on boats,” Levee said.

He became the second man to command the USS Constitution, a famous frigate nicknamed “Old Ironsides” that is now a floating museum in Boston.

Stanton’s father, Judge Daniel Cady, served as a state assemblyman and senator before becoming a state Supreme Court justice. As a former congressman, he had good connections in Washington, too.

“Daniel Webster came here to visit,” the historian said. “His most famous client was John Jacob Astor, American’s first millionaire. And how did he make his first million? Leather.”

Levee said there’s a written account of Cady — in poor health and close to death — being paid a visit by an old friend, fellow lawyer Horance Smith, the first president of the Johnstown Historical Society.

“He was in bad health for quite a while and ... he was reminiscing, being with Alexander Hamilton, being with Aaron Burr. It’s kind of neat,” Levee said.

Lawmakers, dignitaries

Maj. Gen. Richard Dodge was a Johnstown boy. He fought in the Revolution and the War of 1812 and married Washington Irving’s sister Ann. Consequently, Washington Irving of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” fame slept here, too.

Philander B. Prindle — there’s an avenue named for him — was the clerk of the state Assembly.

He carried an autograph book with him to Albany. The book’s in the safe at the historical society, and for good reason.

“It’s like a who’s who in there,” Levee said.

Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s older brother, was the king of Spain from 1808-13. He liked to race horses on William Street and at the fairgrounds in the Colonial City.

The Marquis de Lafayette also paid a visit, in 1778, and at the request of Washington reached out to Indians to urge them to stay neutral or support the Colonists, he said. Lafayette was a wealthy Frenchman and friend of Washington.

In 1906, Cyrus Durey, another Johnstonian, was elected to the U.S. Congress. And Dalwin Niles, yet another, served as a U.S. senator in the 1960s.

Playing a part in arts

More recently, city native Fred G. Vosburgh rose to the post of editor of National Geographic in the 1930s and ’40s.

And then there’s city native and actor John Milford.

“He always had bit parts. He always played the bad guy,” Levee said.

Milford was in one movie, appearing as a bar patron in “Marty.”

He did more work in television, starring as Cole Younger in “The Legend of Jesse James.”

He also had a half-dozen recurring characters on such shows as “The Rifleman” and “Gunsmoke” and did 124 guest appearances on everything from “77 Sunset Strip” to “The Mod Squad,” according to www.tv.com.

When Milford had trouble finding acting work, he took a Civil Service test and wound up working for the city engineer’s office in Hollywood, Levee said.

“He proposed the Walk of Fame with the hands and stars and stuff, although he never got his own,” Levee said. “He married late, had kids and died young of cancer.”

Barbara Germain, director of the Johnstown Public Library, said there’s a lot of interest not so much about local history, but genealogy, and the library is a good place to start for either project.

“We’ve got files as well as books,” she said. Callery said the library gets requests for such information three or four times a week.

As part of the city’s 250th anniversary this year, the Fulton County Historical Society is preparing an exhibit on Johnstown that will open on May 13 and run through October at the Fulton County Museum in Gloversville.

Joan Loveday, president of the society, has been working on the exhibit for weeks with her husband, Bill. Much of the material is on loan from the Johnstown Historical Society.

“It’s starting to look pretty good,” board member Ed Green said.

The exhibit includes Knox Gelatine boxes and recipe books, information on artist-author Helen Ireland Hayes, copies of letters penned by Stanton and Judge Cady’s will.

There are also numerous photos of the deadly July 9, 1889, flood. Coming soon: the gallows from the old Johnstown Jail.

“We’ve got more to do yet,” Loveday said.