The recent column on Mark Silo’s book, “The 115th New York in the Civil War,” sent readers scurrying to their telephones and emails to contribute information regarding relatives who served in that long ago conflict.

Jane Roes of Niskayuna said that her great grandfather, Frank Lamb, enlisted in the 115th. Lamb was from the Pecks Lake area, outside Gloversville, a settlement named North Bush. The Lambs were lumbermen in the winter and farmers in the summer.

Frank Lamb was captured by the Confederates on August 16, 1864 at Deep Bottom, Virginia and held at Belle Island and Libby Prison in Richmond until March 6, 1865. He weighed 134 pounds when he was captured and weighed only 76 pounds when he was released in a prisoner exchange.

Roes said information on her Civil War ancestor comes from his own diaries, some of which were transcribed onto a plaque presented to him and his wife Jane in 1913.

Their son James Lamb, Roes’s grandfather, also worked as a lumberman and farmer but in his later years operated the Valley View Service Station on Route 5-S in Auriesville. James and his wife Dora sold gas to pilgrims who visited the shrine in the summer and Dora started serving food and ice cream to truckers. The Lambs even opened a dining room at their Auriesville service station, which operated in the 1930s and 1940s.

Lorraine Beebe of Niskayuna reported that an ancestor of her husband’s was 18 years old when he enlisted in the 34th U.S. Regiment of the Union Army in Albany.

William Cary—originally from New Jersey--wrote many letters to family members in Gloversville during his service from 1861 through April 30, 1865 that the family has preserved. Beebe has 34 of Cary’s letters.

Cary served as a cavalryman and one duty he drew during the war was to guard General George McClellan when McClellan ran against Abraham Lincoln for President in 1864.

The letters were saved by Alice Peters of Gloversville, the grandmother of Lorraine Beebe’s late husband Robert.

Civil War veteran Cary lived until 1935 and was 93 when he died in Gary, Indiana.

CLARK AVENUE TROLLEY

Joan Kosiba Preisser recently queried Focus on History on whether Clark Avenue off Forest Avenue in Amsterdam had a trolley.

“No one seems to remember that with me,” Preisser said.

Local historian and photo collector Jerry Snyder responded that the Clark Avenue trackage was part of the Belt Line, a loop of trolley tracks that circled the city.

Snyder wrote, “When originally constructed (around 1910), the Belt Line proceeded up Vrooman Avenue from the East Main Street intersection, made a left on Edward Street, a right on James Street, and than a left on Edson Street, crossing over Church Street and passing through what is now the parking lot of the Jendrzejczak Funeral home before descending into Forest Avenue. From there, the line ran up Forest Avenue, turned right onto Clark Avenue, and then left onto Sloane Avenue.”

The Belt Line then continued, ultimately returning to Amsterdam’s downtown. The Belt Line was abandoned in 1928.

Snyder said, “I’m not really surprised that few people would remember the trolley line on Clark Avenue. The Belt Line was only in operation for a relatively short time and I have not found a single picture or postcard in any of my research showing any portion of it. If anyone has any photos in an old album that do show the Belt Line in operation, or even just its tracks running down the street, I would sure love to get a scan of it just to pictorially document its existence.”