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Auburn

Canton Eddie, Turn of the Century Safecracker

December 30, 2021 by John Warren Leave a Comment

victor safe small“Canton Eddie” (a.k.a. “Boston Shorty,” Edward Collins, Edward Burns, Harry Wilson and possibly Harry Berger and Eddie Kinsman) who real name is believed to have been Edward Wilson, was a native of St. Lawrence County, born in about 1876 in Canton.

He was the perpetrator of a string of daring robberies in New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont, and probably elsewhere during his lengthy career. Using nitro-glycerin and “the rest of the safecracker’s outfit” he blew the safes of more than 30 post offices, including the Montpelier, Vermont Post Office at least twice in 1905 and in 1907. By the time he was arrested for the last time in 1916, he had already served a number of prison sentences totaling more than nine years. [Read more…] about Canton Eddie, Turn of the Century Safecracker

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Auburn, Auburn Prison, Canton, Crime and Justice, New York Central RR, railroads

A Killing in Rock City Falls

November 4, 2021 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Ken and Pearl Weaver courtesy Warren County Historical SocietyPearl Marcellus was born May 23rd, 1898, in the Town of Day, Saratoga County, NY, the daughter of Delbert and Elvira (Colson) Marcellus. By age five, her mother had died in childbirth along with her newborn sister, leaving her father to raise nine children.

Pearl was the youngest. She and her father moved to Rock City Falls shortly after 1915. What happened there on November 1, 1917 is told in court testimony by Pearl’s friend Margaret Seeley. [Read more…] about A Killing in Rock City Falls

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Athol, Auburn, Auburn Prison, Crime and Justice, Rock City Falls, Saratoga County, Saratoga County History Center, Saratoga County History Roundtable, Town of Day

Black History in Upstate New York Programs Begin August 16th

August 4, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Black History Upstate Poster Basulto j 7-21-21The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) will present Black History in Upstate New York programs, created by Colgate University graduate Victoria Basulto, beginning August 16th.

The daily programs will provide a combination of bite-sized informational videos and longer presentations by scholars on historical figures and places that emphasize the crucial role Black Americans have played in the history of Upstate New York. The events will be available on the Hall of Fame’s YouTube channel. [Read more…] about Black History in Upstate New York Programs Begin August 16th

Filed Under: Events, History, Western NY Tagged With: Abolition, Auburn, Black History, Civil Rights, Colgate University, Elmira, Harriet Tubman, National Abolition Hall of Fame, Slavery, Suffrage Movement, Underground Railroad, womens history

First To Volunteer: The Conflicting Civil War Claims

March 18, 2020 by Brenda Thomas 5 Comments

Josias R. King Statue When rumbles of impending Civil War rolled through the North, New Yorkers were roused to volunteer even before Fort Sumter was taken and the President rallied troops.

After Sumter fell and Lincoln issued his proclamation, more New Yorkers offered their service to the Union. Likewise, men in other states sought to join the Union army both before and after the proclamation.

After the war, some of those early, quick volunteers also battled to be named the first volunteer for the Union. Months, years, and decades after the war, numerous claims and accolades for who had been the first volunteer began emerging across the North. [Read more…] about First To Volunteer: The Conflicting Civil War Claims

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Auburn, Batavia, Civil War, Genesee County, Holland Land Company Museum, Military History, Niagara County, Niagara County Historical Society, Public History

Black Soldiers of NYS Talk Features Cayuga County

October 29, 2018 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Local historian and author Anthony Gero is set to present a lecture about African American soldiers on Sunday, November 4 at 2 pm in the Carriage House Theater at the Cayuga Museum.

In this presentation, Gero will offer a vision of these soldiers’ legacies from 1750 through the First World War, featuring the role of African Americans from Cayuga County.

[Read more…] about Black Soldiers of NYS Talk Features Cayuga County

Filed Under: History Tagged With: African American History, Auburn, Black History, Cayuga Museum, Military History, World War One

Haunted History Tours of Auburn

October 26, 2018 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Haunted History Tours of AuburnThe Seward House Museum is hosting Haunted History Tours of Auburn daily through October 30th, from 6 to 7 pm.

Costumed guides take guests around the Seward House grounds and along the darkened streets of historic downtown Auburn, sharing chilling tales of Victorian funeral practices, spectral encounters from Seward family lore, grizzly true crime stories, and other spooky accounts drawn from local folklore and history. [Read more…] about Haunted History Tours of Auburn

Filed Under: Events, History Tagged With: Auburn, Seward House Museum

Mourning or Macabre? Victorian Death Rites

October 25, 2018 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Victorian Death RitesThe Seward House Museum in Auburn, NY is set to host Mourning or Macabre?: Victorian Death Rites on Friday, October 26th at 6:30 pm.

The scale of death wrought by the Civil War changed the ways Americans grieved for their lost loved ones. The Victorian generation posed for photographs with the dead and kept memento mori, physical mementos from the bodies of the deceased. They also developed a culture of funereal rites that strike the modern observer as dark and morbid. [Read more…] about Mourning or Macabre? Victorian Death Rites

Filed Under: Events, History Tagged With: Auburn, Seward House Museum

Seward Assassination Attempt Reconsidered In Auburn

October 11, 2018 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Seward Assassination AttemptThe Seward House Museum has announced a program, Murder and Medicine: The Seward Assassination Attempt Reconsidered, has been set for Wednesday, October 17th, from 7:15 to 8:30 pm, at the Carriage House Theater, located behind the Cayuga Musuem on 203 Genesee St, Auburn. [Read more…] about Seward Assassination Attempt Reconsidered In Auburn

Filed Under: Events, History Tagged With: Auburn, Seward House Museum, William Seward

1918 Influenza Outbreak In The Finger Lakes

September 3, 2018 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

influenza medicine depotA lecture on the 1918 influenza epidemic in the Finger Lakes has been set for Thursday, September 6th at 7 pm, at the Cayuga Museum’s Carriage House Theater in Auburn.

Medical historian and retired professor Teresa Lehr will discuss the flu pandemic, and specifically its local effects. [Read more…] about 1918 Influenza Outbreak In The Finger Lakes

Filed Under: Events, History Tagged With: Auburn, Cayuga Museum, Finger Lakes, Influenza, Medical History

The New York Origins of Mormonism

May 7, 2018 by Jack Kelly 1 Comment

E.B. Grandin Print ShopSixteen inches of snow in June. Killing frosts in August. The mystifying weather, known as eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death, swept the Northeast in 1816. Unbeknownst to those who suffered from it, the climactic quirk was the result of a volcanic eruption in the distant Dutch East Indies a year earlier.

That summer, Joseph Smith Sr. threw in the towel. The Vermont farmer joined the exodus of his neighbors who were determined to find a life with more promise than they could scratch from the rocky New England hill country. It was rumored that land was more fertile in the western New York State. Men there were already surveying for a canal to connect that country to East Coast markets. [Read more…] about The New York Origins of Mormonism

Filed Under: History, Mohawk Valley, Western NY Tagged With: Auburn, Erie Canal, Mormonism, Palmyra, Religion, Wayne County

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