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 the 363rd infantry, Pagliaro was shot and killed by a German sniper in Belgium five days before the Armistice on November 11, 1918.
De Rose said that Pagliaro was born in Italy. His father—Joseph Pagliaro—had come to America alone and was able to earn enough money working for the railroad to send for his wife Philomena and their son Ralph, eight years old at the time, to come to the United States.
The Pagliaro family lived in Fonda at first and then moved to Amsterdam. Six more children were born here. DeRose said when America entered the war in 1917, his uncle Ralph, who was not married, joined the U.S. Army.
DeRose said, “In those days the men sent their laundry home from boot camp to be washed. I have a letter handed down to me in which (Ralph) wrote to his brother Rocco Pagliaro, explaining how to send the laundry back to him. In the letter, he tells of his love for this country and that he was ready to give his life for it.”
Pagliaro was buried in Belgium. DeRose said the government offered Ralph’s parents $20,000 to leave the body there but they refused. The body was returned to Amsterdam and buried in St. Michael the Archangel cemetery.
DeRose said, “My Grandmother wore black for over 30 years.”
1914 GLOVERS STRIKE
According to historian Barbara McMartin, some 1,500 glove cutters went on strike at almost all the glove firms in Fulton County in 1914. The strike began in Gloversville and spread within hours to Johnstown. As the strike went on, 15,000 glove industry workers were idled.
McMartin said the glove cutters—primarily Russian Jews, Italians, English and native-born Americans—argued they had not received any significant pay increase since 1897. The manufacturers were united in their stand that current trade conditions prevented the possibility of a pay raise.
The New York State Board of Mediation and Arbitration issued findings on the strike after holding hearings in Fulton County that year, in general ruling against the union. The glovers eventually returned to work, without their long sought pay raise. There were some raises after World War I. McMartin said that the glove manufacturers won a hollow victory in that the industry now had begun its ultimate decline in Fulton County.
McMartin wrote, “There was more than a hint of socialist goals among the leaders of the strike.”
McMartin said the union promoted socialist ideas and socialism was a topic discussed then in Fulton County.
One cutter—Herman “Bud” Abbott--pointed to starving little children and miserable working conditions and said the quicker the state owns the glove industry, the better for the community.
“The Johnstown Grand Opera House had a series of talks in a Socialist Lyceum course,” McMartin wrote. Among the speakers was Ella Reeve Bloor, whose research was the basis for Upton Sinclair’s expose of the meatpacking industry, “The Jungle.”
ILLUMINATED ROUTE 5
According to historian Hugh Donlon, Route 5 in the town of Amsterdam benefited from a highway illumination program in 1930, one of the first in the state.
General Electric sponsored the project, although the Amsterdam Taxpayers Association protested the effort as a needless expense.
Donlon wrote, “The illuminated Route 5 attracted wide attention that lasted until arterial work in 1960 eliminated 74 lamps.”
