There is a determined but jaunty tone to a 1943 newsletter called The Mohawker, published by Mohawk Carpet Mills for its employees and over 900 men and women from the mill who were then in the armed forces, scattered all over the world.
“Silent Mike Domkowski has his over-age discharge,” began one of the items describing workers from Mohawk’s Wilton Department. “His Sergeant told him he’d do more good for the Army in civilian life than being in it. Mike said: ‘I ain’t mad.’ ”
Wilton was a type of carpet woven at Mohawk using a system of paper punch cards invented by an 18th century Frenchman, Joseph Jacquard. Silent Mike was a Wilton weaver and legendary in the East End for being a man of few words.
A frequent hangout for Mike and my aunts — Vera Cudmore and Gladys Morrell — was the Ivy Leaf, a basement tavern at the corner of Forbes and Schuyler streets operated by a woman named Smith. Patrons nicknamed the Ivy Leaf “the Kneepad Inn.” As it was located on one of Amsterdam’s steepest hills, the legend was that winter tipplers sometimes resorted to crawling out on their knees so they wouldn’t tumble down the hill when they hit the icy sidewalk.
“Jimmy Hayden from the Wilton office is leaving for the Navy,” reported the 1943 Mohawker. “We are all wishing Jimmy well, as he would go out of his way to keep our looms running.”
“Helen Burke, one of our sparehands, joined the WACCS. You boys never met her but she tied a mean knot before she left.” Sparehands and creelers tied hundreds of strong yet small “weaver’s knots” to keep the looms running.
“I’m glad to hear that the Mill is well on its way producing blankets and tarpaulins,” wrote U.S. Navy recruit Bruno Petruccione.
Both Mohawk and Bigelow-Sanford carpet mills in Amsterdam switched to making blankets and canvas during World War II, while their machine shops produced a variety of war-related products.
The lead story in the May 1943 newsletter reported that the War Department had presented the Army-Navy Production Award — the “E” pennant for excellence — to Mohawk Carpet Mills. Mohawk was the first carpet mill to deliver canvas to the war effort. Canvas was used for tents and to cover guns and other equipment.
“Canvas is sure a war commodity,” wrote Louis McLaughlin from the USS Jamestown. “You would be surprised to see how much is used, even on the smaller ships. And, of course, blankets are a necessity everywhere.”
Charles and Margaret Personeus of Hagaman provided the copy of The Mohawker. Charles Stephen Personeus was a combat infantryman in Burma in World War II, where mules were used to carry supplies.
After the war, like his father Charles Hutchinson Personeus, he worked at Mohawk. When the mill closed he worked at General Electric.
LINCOLN EXHIBIT
An exhibit on the life of Abraham Lincoln is on display at the Riverfront Center in Amsterdam, a cooperative effort between the Walter Elwood Museum and WCSS AM 1490 radio.
The exhibit can be seen whenever Riverfront Center is open through Feb. 5.
Historian Hugh Donlon wrote in “Annals of a Mill Town” that support for the Civil War effort was not unanimous in the Mohawk Valley.
Lincoln carried the town of Amsterdam and Montgomery County in 1860. Lincoln trailed General George McClellan by 391 votes in the county in the 1864 election, although Lincoln did carry the town of Amsterdam by 131 votes that year.
According to a Lincoln history web site, the Great Emancipator’s funeral train passed through the Mohawk Valley and stopped in Amsterdam at 5:25 p.m. on April 26, 1865.
