For many years a fiberglass statue from Amsterdam’s Mohawk Carpet Mills was used to depict the mascot of Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. Hudson Valley sports teams adopted the Viking as a mascot some time after the college was created in 1953. No one knows why the Viking was ...

Relatives and friends of the late M. Paul Keesler have published the book that the late Mohawk Valley historian and outdoorsman was working on before his death. Keesler died of cancer in July 2005 at age 67. Keesler’s posthumously published book is “Mohawk—Discovering the Valley of the Crystals.” The book ...

With World War II over for only five months, the Mohican Market at 117 East Main Street in Amsterdam proudly advertised in a January 1946 newspaper, “Yes! We have plenty of meat.” Lean tender hamburger cost 28 cents a pound. Bologna was 21 cents a pound. Corned beef went for ...

Amsterdam’s enterprising undertaker, W. Max Reid, is credited with being a prime mover in creation of telephone service in the city. Reid is well known as an historian for his 1901 book, “The Mohawk Valley.” He was president of the Amsterdam Board of Trade from its founding in 1884 until ...

As some newspapers do today, the Amsterdam Morning Sentinel printed advertisements on its front page on September 17, 1886. Albany jeweler Henry Rowlands had the largest large front page ad and other large ads were taken by Bradford & Dickinson at 46 East Main Street and Larrabee & Barnes, then ...

If and when the proposed pedestrian bridge crosses the Mohawk River in Amsterdam, it will not charge tolls. That wasn’t the case in the early to mid-19th century. According to historian Hugh Donlon’s “Annals of a Mill Town,” the towns of Amsterdam and Florida jointly contracted to build a river ...

The first electric trolley ride between Fonda and Gloversville in 1893 was a surprise wedding gift for the manager of the trolley line. The story is told in Paul K. Larner’s book “Our Railroad: The History of the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad.” The F.J. & G. steam railroad was ...

Early in 1963—a year that would end with the assassination of President Kennedy and begin years of tumult over war and racial issues in America—Montgomery County Republicans gathered to honor one of their own. Assemblyman Donald A. Campbell was guest of honor at a January testimonial dinner dance at St. ...

Growing up in the solidly Democratic Fourth Ward of Amsterdam, I have memories of election days in the 1950s in which school age bullies gave their usual targets a free pass and instead went on the prowl for suspected Republicans. Historian Hugh Donlon has reported that political passions reached a ...

The recent column on World War I prompted a response from a descendant of Ralph Pagliaro, the last Amsterdamian to die in the war. Retired Amsterdam High School principal and drama teacher Bert DeRose wrote that Pagliaro was his uncle, his mother Anna’s brother. A member of Company M of ...