Milton Sernett

Milton C. Sernett is Professor Emeritus of African American Studies and History, Syracuse University. His published academic books include ones on abolitionism, African American religious history, Harriet Tubman, and the Great Migration. A longtime student of all things agricultural, Sernett has published books about the transition from heavy horse farming to tractors, cheese making, chickens, Holstein history, and Jared Van Wagenen. He is a founding member of the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, Peterboro, New York.

Big Cheese Politics: Federalist Cows Need Not Apply

November 15, 2023 by Milton Sernett 1 Comment

A huge cheese is said to have sealed the election of Thomas Jefferson, who occupied the White House on January 1, 1802, after a bitter contest with his rival, the incumbent president and Federalist leader John Adams. It is an oft-told tale.

Upset by Puritan denunciations of Jefferson, Elder John Leland of the Baptist Church of Cheshire, Massachusetts, organized a communal effort to demonstrate support for Jeffersonian Democracy. [Read more…] about Big Cheese Politics: Federalist Cows Need Not Apply

Peterboro’s Dominie: Early Black Adventist John West

November 3, 2023 by Milton Sernett 2 Comments

At least 147 African Americans are buried in the small Peterboro Cemetery in rural Madison County, New York. Among them is John West, whose headstone was toppled by a falling tree during a storm in August 2023. [Read more…] about Peterboro’s Dominie: Early Black Adventist John West

Cazenovia, The Origins of Soccer & The National “Football” Hall of Fame

May 23, 2022 by Milton Sernett Leave a Comment

In 1947 the citizens of Cazenovia in Madison County mounted a campaign to have the proposed hall of fame or shrine honoring American players of “football” located in their community.

Supporters at the village, town, county, and state levels joined in the effort to bring the hall of fame to Cazenovia. Assemblyman Wheeler Milmoe who represented Madison County introduced Resolution No. 154 in Albany in support of Cazenovia’s claim to fame. Gov. Thomas Dewey also voiced strong support for the idea. There were other places in the nation politicking for having the “football” hall of fame located in their communities. [Read more…] about Cazenovia, The Origins of Soccer & The National “Football” Hall of Fame

The Killing of Schoharie Deputy Sheriff Huddleston in 1818

May 10, 2022 by Milton Sernett 1 Comment

On the ninth of October 1818, William Huddleston, a resident of Lawyersville and a deputy sheriff of Schoharie County, rode out to the farm of John van Alstine. Van Alstine had run over and injured a child the previous summer.

Huddleston intended to collect several judgments from Van Alstine arising from the injury to the child and secure some of Van Alstine’s property as collateral against various outstanding judgments. Van Alstine picked up a wooden bar and clubbed the deputy sheriff to death. The killing was, as the ghost says in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “a murder most foul.” [Read more…] about The Killing of Schoharie Deputy Sheriff Huddleston in 1818

The Night the Lights Came On: Electricity on New York State Farms

May 1, 2022 by Milton Sernett 4 Comments

Few New York State farms had electric power in the 1920s. Even as late as 1930 ninety percent of farm families nationwide had no line-run electricity. On long winter evenings city dwellers could read and sew long past sunset, but farm families sat in near darkness and did chores, such as milking the cows, in the dim light of kerosene lanterns.

Some farmers used Delco-Light Plants made up of ranks of glass-jarred lead-storage batteries located in dirt-floored basements for electric power. As Delco’s slogan was, “Delco systems sell best by night,” Delco salesman cleverly arrived at dusk with small Delco systems to demonstrate to farmers how these DC-units, when sufficiently massed, could bring to the farm what folks in the cities enjoyed. But Delco systems were expensive, and the batteries had to be recharged with a generator powered by a gasoline engine. [Read more…] about The Night the Lights Came On: Electricity on New York State Farms

The Destruction of Gerrit Smith’s Mansion

April 21, 2022 by Milton Sernett 3 Comments

Historical research using old newspapers fascinates but also frustrates me. Had you read the March 5th, 1936 edition of The Cazenovia Republican you would have learned that the historic Gerrit Smith mansion in Peterboro, New York, burned to the ground two days earlier. [Read more…] about The Destruction of Gerrit Smith’s Mansion

Crimes Against Butter: The Oleomargarine Controversy

April 12, 2022 by Milton Sernett 7 Comments

The butter trade was once so important to dairy farmers in Orange County, NY that the bank in Goshen, the county seat, printed its currency on yellow paper. Popularly known as “butter money,” this currency symbolized how significant the trade in butter was to dairy farmers in dairy regions across the state prior to the introduction of refrigerated railroad cars to ship raw milk, first using blocks of ice and then mechanical cooling.

The original shipment of milk from Orange County to New York City is believed to have taken place in the spring of 1842 via the New York & Erie Railroad. Prior to this raw milk could be transported only short distances by farm wagon.

Butter, however, could be transported to markets many miles from the farm or factory where it was produced. As symbolized by “butter money,” blocks of butter were once as good as gold. [Read more…] about Crimes Against Butter: The Oleomargarine Controversy

Cornell Agricultural Dean Liberty Hyde Bailey: A Man for All Seasons

April 4, 2022 by Milton Sernett 1 Comment

I joined the faculty of Syracuse University in 1975. I was surprised to learn that my institution once had a farm and hopes for a college of agriculture.

To my chagrin, I learned that my school lost out to Cornell back in 1904 when Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954) bested Syracuse University’s Chancellor James R. Day in getting legislation passed in Albany to provide Cornell with state funding for an agricultural school. [Read more…] about Cornell Agricultural Dean Liberty Hyde Bailey: A Man for All Seasons

Farm Paper of the Air: WGY & The Sage of Lawyersville, Jared van Wagenen

March 27, 2022 by Milton Sernett 7 Comments

The boom in home radio usage began in the early 1920s. The Department of Commerce issued regulations to control the chaotic spread of radio stations in December of 1921.

A listing from March 10th, 1922, included 67 stations that were officially licensed to use the public airwaves. One of those would become extremely significant in the life of Jared van Wagenen, Jr., a graduate of Cornell University and a farmer who lived at Hillside Farm at Lawyersville (north of Cobleskill) in Schoharie County.

Van Wagenen (1871-1960), though a self-proclaimed “dirt farmer,” was a prolific writer and speaker on all things agricultural. He championed an agricultural civilization where human values were prized over profit. [Read more…] about Farm Paper of the Air: WGY & The Sage of Lawyersville, Jared van Wagenen

The Daniel Parrish Witter Agricultural Museum: A History

March 19, 2022 by Milton Sernett 1 Comment

The Daniel Parrish Witter Agricultural Museum at what is now known as the Great New York State Fair opened officially on April 30th, 1928. Daniel Parrish Witter, a long-time New York State Assemblyman representing Tioga County was born in 1852 at Richford. Witter assumed the greater responsibility for working the family farm after his father became disabled, one of his older brothers was killed in the Civil War, and two others were seriously wounded in the same conflict. [Read more…] about The Daniel Parrish Witter Agricultural Museum: A History