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Cortland County

Central-Finger Lakes Segment of Statewide Birding Trail Opens

May 14, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

bird watchers courtesy DECNew York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced the grand opening of the Central-Finger Lakes segment of the New York State Birding Trail to highlight the state’s world-class and wide-ranging birding opportunities.

The Central-Finger Lakes segment includes 54 locations throughout 15 counties, providing a variety of quality birding experiences for New Yorkers and visitors to enjoy. [Read more…] about Central-Finger Lakes Segment of Statewide Birding Trail Opens

Filed Under: Mohawk Valley, Nature, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: birding, birds, Cayuga County, Chenango County, Cortland County, DEC, Finger Lakes, High Tor WMA, Lake Ontario, Livingston County, Madison County, Monroe County, Montezuma National Wildelife Refuge, nature, New York State Birding Trail, Oneida County, Onondaga County, Ontario County, Oswego County, Otsego County, Seneca County, Tompkins County, Wayne County, Wildlife, Yates County

Sculptor Edmonia Lewis Honored With Black Heritage Postal Stamp

January 29, 2022 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Lewis StampThe United States Postal Service will issued the 45th Black Heritage stamp on January 26th, 2022 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C. in honor of Edmonia Lewis, a Black and Native American sculptor who gained international recognition.

Edmonia Lewis was born in 1844 to an Ojibwa/Chippewa woman from Albany and a former enslaved man from Haiti. Both parents died when Wildfire, as she was called, was young. She went to live with her mother’s sisters. In later years her brother Samuel supported her and in 1856 she entered New York Central College. She then went to Oberlin College in Ohio from 1859 to 1863. [Read more…] about Sculptor Edmonia Lewis Honored With Black Heritage Postal Stamp

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, Western NY Tagged With: Abolition, Albany, Art History, Black History, Cortland County, Cultural History, Edmonia Lewis, Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark, Haiti, Indigenous History, Madison County Historical Society, McGraw Historical Society, sculpture, womens history

Thurlow Weed, Stephen Van Rensselaer III and the Disputed Election of 1824

October 7, 2021 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

A Young Thurlow Weed (2)Thurlow Weed was born on November 15, 1797, the son of Joel and Mary (Elis) Weed, in Cairo, Greene County, NY where his grandfather settled after the Revolutionary War. His father was a farmer who was apparently hard working but never prosperous, occasionally spending time in jail for debt.

In 1799, the family moved to Catskill where young Weed received a small amount of schooling. His first job was pumping a blacksmith’s bellows while the blacksmith formed heated iron. He made six cents per day. At nine, he got a job as a cabin boy on a Hudson River sloop. [Read more…] about Thurlow Weed, Stephen Van Rensselaer III and the Disputed Election of 1824

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Catskill, Catskills, Cortland County, Greene County, Martin Van Buren, Onondaga County, Political History, Stephen Van Rensselaer III, Thurlow Weed, Van Rensselaers

Albany’s Ira Harris: From Rights Advocate to Lincoln’s Assassination

September 27, 2021 by Peter Hess 3 Comments

Ira HarrisIra Harris was born at Charleston, Montgomery County, NY on May 31st, 1802 to Fredrick Waterman Harris and Lucy Hamilton. When he was six years old, his family moved to Preble, NY where his father became one of the largest landowners in Cortland County.

Harris attended Homer Academy and graduated from Union College in 1824. He studied law for one year in Homer, New York and then moved to Albany where he assisted one of that city’s most highly regarded jurists, Ambrose Spencer. [Read more…] about Albany’s Ira Harris: From Rights Advocate to Lincoln’s Assassination

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: 1846 NYS Constitution, Abe Lincoln, Albany, Albany County, Albany Law School, Albany Med, Albany Rural Cemetery, Anti-Rent War, Cortland County, Crime and Justice, Horace Greeley, Legal History, Medical History, Montgomery County, Political History, politics, Supreme Court, Temperance, Union College, Vassar College, William Seward, womens history

Volunteers Improve Trails at Morgan Hill State Forest

July 28, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Morgan Hill State ForestRecently, volunteers from the bike group CNY D.I.R.T. worked together at Morgan Hill State Forest in southern Onondaga and northern Cortland counties to build an additional 1.3 miles of single-track multiple-use trail. The forest now hosts 10.8 miles of designated multiple-use trail, with another 4+ miles planned in the next few years. [Read more…] about Volunteers Improve Trails at Morgan Hill State Forest

Filed Under: Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: Cortland County, DEC, Morgan Hill State Forest, mountain biking, Onondaga County, trails

Aerial Photos: New York Rural History From Above

January 5, 2015 by Bill Casey 58 Comments

aerial photograph centered in Syracuse Onondaga County New York 1938Aerial photos can be helpful research tools for historians. Google Earth, which provides access to a vast collection of aerial photography stretching back 20 years, is just a sampling of the many aerial photos that have been made since French balloonist Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, known as “Nadar,” took a photo over Paris, France in 1858.

Much of New York Sate was photographed with the camera pointing straight down, an oblique presentation that is less useful to some historians. An effort to capture all of New York in an orthophotographic perspective (corrected to a uniform scale) started in 1936 with a contract to C.S. Robinson of Ithaca, NY. These images are particularly valuable resources for historians of all stripes. [Read more…] about Aerial Photos: New York Rural History From Above

Filed Under: History, Nature Tagged With: Agricultural History, Architecture, Cayuga County, Cortland County, Environmental History, Gardens - Landscape Architecture, Online Resources, Onondaga County, Photography, Seneca County, Tompkins County, Wayne County

Sesquicentennial Observance of Battle of Cedar Creek

October 13, 2014 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Cedar Creek Battlefield Association LogoThree days before the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War Battle of Cedar Creek, Sue Greenhagen will deliver the second program in the new Madison County Civil War Series.

At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, October 16, 2014 at the Hamilton Public Library (13 Broad Street, Hamilton NY) Greenhagen will describe the October 19, 1864 battle in Middletown (Belle Grove) Virginia with particular attention to the service of the 114th Infantry Regiment which was recruited primarily from Chenango, Cortland, and Madison Counties in New York State with recruitment headquarters in Norwich NY: Companies A and H were from Oxford, Companies B and C from Norwich. Company D from Eaton, Company E from Greene, Company F from Sherburne and New Berlin, Company G from Hamilton and Brookfield, Company I from Otselic, and Company K from Cazenovia. [Read more…] about Sesquicentennial Observance of Battle of Cedar Creek

Filed Under: Events, History, Western NY Tagged With: Chenango County, Civil War, Cortland County, Madison County, Military History

Sunday: Southern Tier Event Recalls Civil War Veteran

September 25, 2014 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

04 photo 2014 imThe Coventry Town Museum Association will present its 10th Annual Civil War Commemorative event “Celebrating And Remembering The Life Of Coventry’s Immigrant Son, Private John Shaver – Stonemason, Family Man, Civil War Infantryman”, on Sunday, September 28th, on the grounds of the Coventryville Congregational Church.

This all day event honors John Shaver, ancestor of numerous descendants live throughout the Southern Tier including Chenango, Cortland and Broome counties. [Read more…] about Sunday: Southern Tier Event Recalls Civil War Veteran

Filed Under: Events, History, Western NY Tagged With: Broome County, Chenango County, Civil War, Cortland County

African American Men in White NY Civil War Units

January 4, 2012 by Carol Kammen 5 Comments

An obituary from 1865 led me to investigate the life of Ira T. Brum, who enlisted in the 185th New York Volunteers in June 1864. The regiment was full of young men from Onondaga and Cortland, and some few from elsewhere in the state. Company F contained mostly men from Cortland who enlisted together that spring.

The 185th participated in the siege of Petersburg and was part of the Appomattox Campaign, fighting at Quaker Road, Gravelly Run, Five Forks and at Appomattox Court House. There, on April 9th, 1865 members of the 185th saw the “white flag come out and was glad to see it.” First Lieutenant Hiram Clark of Marathon gathered his men and sang “Hail Columbia.” As the men settled against a fence, a shell came over and killed Clark, the “last man killed in the army of the Potomac.” [Read more…] about African American Men in White NY Civil War Units

Filed Under: History Tagged With: African American History, Carol Kammen, Civil War, Cortland County, Ithaca, Military History, Onondaga County, Thompkins County

Roberson Museum Commemorates the Civil War

December 12, 2011 by Gerald R. Smith Leave a Comment

150 years ago shots were fired on Fort Sumter off the coast of South Carolina signaling the beginning of the Civil War. A century and a half later, Roberson Museum and Science Center has assembled hundreds of objects and stories to tell the story of how that conflict affected this area in a new exhibition appropriately named The Civil War. [Read more…] about Roberson Museum Commemorates the Civil War

Filed Under: New Exhibits Tagged With: Broome County, Chenango County, Cortland County, Delaware County, Roberson Museum, Susquehanna River, Tioga County

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