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Maury Thompson

Maury Thompson is a freelance writer and documentary film producer from Ticonderoga who specializes in the history of politics, labor organizing and media in New York's North Country.

He previously was a reporter for The Post-Star of Glens Falls for 21 years.

His latest book is The Animated Feather Duster: Slow News Day Tales of the Legendary Facial Hair of Charles Evans Hughes.

A First World War Holiday Miracle

December 14, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

World War One poster Exaggerating the quickness of the war's end Call it an antiquarian newspaper holiday miracle.

“Rather a peculiar thing happened a few days ago,” Lieutenant Howard Smith of Hudson Falls wrote his mother from a military hospital in France on December 26th, 1918. “One of the orderlies of this ward found a picture of me in The Post-Star while he was in another ward. It was an account of my getting a Boche.” [Read more…] about A First World War Holiday Miracle

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Christmas, Glens Falls, Holidays, Hudson Falls, Military History, Warren County, World War One

President Taft At Old Ticonderoga

December 1, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

President Taft at the Grandstand at Ticonderoga provided by Fort TiconderogaPresident William Howard Taft dozed for nearly five hours in the wee hours of the July 6th, 1909 morning as The Mayflower, his private rail car, was parked at the esplanade end of track No. 13 at Grand Central Station inn the city of New York. [Read more…] about President Taft At Old Ticonderoga

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Charles Evans Hughes, Fort Ticonderoga, Lake Champlain, Political History, Ticonderoga, William Howard Taft

A Plague of Potato Bugs in 1877 Washington County

November 25, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Colorado potato beetle courtesy Scott Bauer USDAThe weather at Granville, in Washington County, in June 1877, was ideal for agriculture.

“This is the weather that makes farmers happy,” The Granville Sentinel reported.

Corn and flax crops looked promising, but “vigilance and perseverance is to be the price of potatoes.” [Read more…] about A Plague of Potato Bugs in 1877 Washington County

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Food, History, Nature Tagged With: Agricultural History, Food, Granville, insects, local farms, local food, nature, Washington County, Wildlife

The 1884 Election Also Brought False GOP Claims of Voter Fraud

November 17, 2020 by Maury Thompson 1 Comment

Election 1884 Cincinnati Riot(1) Counting and verification of votes in the 1884 presidential election, as now, was controversial, with Republicans claiming fraud and inaccuracy.

“Republicans are diehard here. All their hope lies in finding a clerical error in the returns,” a Lake George correspondent wrote in a dispatch published November 11th in The Morning Star of Glens Falls. [Read more…] about The 1884 Election Also Brought False GOP Claims of Voter Fraud

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Crime and Justice, Grover Cleveland, Political History, politics

Local Newspaper Editor Ponders Election of 1876

November 2, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

October 1872 ElectionPresidential elections can strain neighborly relations, as reiterated in Washington County’s Granville Sentinel in 1876.

“The one pleasant thing about it, when the cruel suspense is over, they’ll be less lying in the newspapers and less personal defamation in the streets,” the Sentinel quipped on October 29th. [Read more…] about Local Newspaper Editor Ponders Election of 1876

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Elections, Granville, Local History, Media, Newspapers, Political History, politics, Washington County

Teddy In Ticonderoga: Get Me From the Train On Time

October 22, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Theodore Roosevelt portrait courtesy United States Library of Congress Prints and Photographs divisionRepublican gubernatorial candidate Nathan Miller was on such a tight schedule on October 12th, 1920 that one of the keynote speakers in his entourage got left behind at the railroad depot south of Ticonderoga village, on Lake Champlain.

At least that’s the official explanation. [Read more…] about Teddy In Ticonderoga: Get Me From the Train On Time

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Political History, Theodore Roosevelt, Ticonderoga

Albany Celebrated Grover Cleveland’s 1884 Nomination for President

October 14, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Grover Cleveland courtesy Library of CongressAfter the 1884 Democratic National Convention closed at Chicago, the nation’s attention turned to Albany, where nominee-in-waiting Grover Cleveland was doing his best not to make news prematurely. [Read more…] about Albany Celebrated Grover Cleveland’s 1884 Nomination for President

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Grover Cleveland, Political History

Pot-Luck Suppers Of Yesteryear

October 8, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

assortment of different dishes at a potluck courtesy Wikimedia user Nehrams2020Theologically, I identify as an ecumenical pot luck supper observer.

So, this historic pun caught my fancy.

“The all-absorbing question agitating the public mind at Sandy Hill is: ‘If a Roman Catholic roasts an Episcopalian’s turkey in a Methodist oven, what denomination will the turkey be?’” The Morning Star of Glens Falls asked on January 12th, 1884. “All the sages have given it up.” [Read more…] about Pot-Luck Suppers Of Yesteryear

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Western NY Tagged With: Agricultural History, Culinary History, Cultural History, local farms

Ben Stickney’s Press: A New York Inventor’s Piece of World Postal History

October 1, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Stickney Presses US Treasury DepartmentAppeals from officials in the Adirondacks of Upstate New York to President Calvin Coolidge in 1924 resulted in the reappointment to federal government service of “undoubtedly the greatest inventive genius that Essex County has ever produced.”

Benjamin R. Stickney, a Moriah Center native, was a chief engineer at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing when President Warren Harding dismissed Stickney and 27 other federal bureaucrats, without notice, on March 27, 1922. [Read more…] about Ben Stickney’s Press: A New York Inventor’s Piece of World Postal History

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Engineering History, Essex County, Industrial History, Port Henry, Postal Service, Ticonderoga

Big Hogs In The Paper: A Collection Of Pig Tales From Historic Newspapers

September 16, 2020 by Maury Thompson 1 Comment

Domestic pigs in a wallow courtesy Mark Peters Poplar Spring Animal SanctuaryA hog weighing in at 1,200 pounds raised in Greenwich, in Washington County, was spared the slaughter, at least temporarily, in order to be put on display as an oddity.

“G.V.P. Lansing, a resident of the town of Greenwich, has the unique distinction of having raised and marketed the largest hog ever grown in the world,” The Post-Star reported on March 12, 1919. “The hog was sold last week to Bennett Brothers of Albany, and shipped to that place.” [Read more…] about Big Hogs In The Paper: A Collection Of Pig Tales From Historic Newspapers

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, Food, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Agricultural History, Food, local farms, nature, Washington County

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