History, Natural History & the Arts
Timing is everything! While contemplating a unique marker in the Sackets Harbor military cemetery a puzzling question came up. Why was Henderson, NY resident Joseph Hawkins, who never served in the military, buried in the military cemetery?
Coincidentally, Henderson Historical Society’s Eric Anderson was simultaneously researching Joseph Hawkins and shared clues. [Read more…] about A Military Cemetery Mystery Solved
This year we celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment which secured the right of women to vote. The historic anniversary gives us a chance to remember and recognize pioneering efforts by women from across New York State.
A recent Watertown Daily Times article featured the story of US Army Brigadier General Anna Mae Hays, one of two women who became Generals on the same day in 1970. Truly, Hays exemplifies a trailblazer, yet the other woman in the photograph of that promotion celebration which was run with the story is a woman claimed by Sackets Harbor, NY – Brigadier General Elizabeth Hoisington. [Read more…] about General Elizabeth Hoisington: A Military ‘Trailblazer’
During the years of the War of 1812, winter ice played an important strategic role between the combatants on Lake Ontario. At the eastern end of the lake, decision makers at both Sackets Harbor, the US military headquarters, and Kingston, the center for Upper Canada forces, anticipated invasion opportunities across the frozen lake, and each spring anxiously waited to commence naval operations after the ice left their harbors.
In March 1815, at Sackets Harbor the US Navy commander extended a cordial invitation to a former War of 1812 British adversary, but the lake needed to be ice free: “Commodore Chauncey presents his Compliments to the Marquis of Tweedale, will feel extremely [sic] happy to see the Marquis and his friends at Sacketts Harbor and will with pleasure send them to Kingston the moment the ice will allow a passage.” [Read more…] about Some Sackets Harbor Ice Boating History
Over the centuries, history unfolded in so many ways along the cliffs of what is today the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site.
The oldest story about the cliffs appears in the oral traditions of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) when the Great Peacemaker crossed Lake Ontario in a white stone canoe, landing where Sackets Harbor is located.
The cliffs played a defensive role a May 1813 attack by British and Canadian forces during the War of 1812. [Read more…] about Sackets Harbor: On The Cliffs of Lake Ontario
As Women’s History Month ends, Sackets Harbor has quite a woman to remember. During her tenure at the country’s smallest US Naval station, Frances “Frank” Metcalf daily raised and lowered the flag for nine years. She assumed her appointment by the Navy Department after her husband Albert’s death in 1906.
In fact, her husband’s father Henry Metcalf, an English immigrant, accepted the first Navy Yard ship keeper’s role in 1862 after Commodore Bailey stepped down. Albert, assumed his father’s role in 1868 when his father passed away. The title of ‘ship-keeper’ evolved into ‘caretaker’ a decade later, but that didn’t stop his widow Frances from calling herself ship-keeper during her reign. [Read more…] about Frances Metcalf: A Veteran of the Years
Sackets Harbor‘s role in the War of 1812 began a long relationship between the community and the military that continues today. During that war, the massive influx of forces challenged all aspects of daily life. After the war, the village accepted the Army’s decision to create a new home Madison Barracks.
Today, with the Army’s nearby Ft. Drum military reservation, soldiers and civilian employees continue to call the village and surrounding town their home. [Read more…] about Military Hospitality At Sackets Harbor
Sackets Harbor’s military story spans two centuries. After the War of 1812, the Army set up their post Madison Barracks, so since then, US military conflicts through World War II had some connection to Sackets Harbor.
Thousands of soldiers called Madison Barracks home during its 130-year history. But what do we know of the soldier’s spouses?
One of the most well-known brides, Julia Dent Grant, joined her young husband Ulysses S., taking up residence in the Stone Row quarters shortly after their marriage in 1848. She wrote fondly of her time at the Northern New York army post. [Read more…] about Army War Brides At Sackets Harbor