This week on The Historians Podcast, Bob Cudmore and Dave Greene discuss a factory building in Fort Plain that was the 20th century home of Luxuray, makers of women’s underwear. They also talk about the Mohawk Carpet Mills in Amsterdam as described in a 1950 mill publication. [Read more…] about Luxuray: Fort Plain’s Underwear Factory History
Fort Plain
The Legacy of Fort Plain Inventor William Yerdon
A foundation named for a Fort Plain inventor and his wife, both born in the 19th century, continues to support local charitable organizations. William Yerdon was born in the town of Minden, NY in 1843. He married Sylvina “Vina” Barker in 1881.
Born in Canada, Vina Barker had studied telegraphy and came to Fort Plain in 1876 as a telegraph operator for the New York Central Railroad. She kept her job for about a year after marrying Yerdon, a businessman and Fort Plain postmaster who patented the Yerdon Double Hose Band in 1890. [Read more…] about The Legacy of Fort Plain Inventor William Yerdon
American Revolution Authors At Fort Plain Museum
The Fort Plain Museum will be hosting authors Don Hagist and Todd Andrlik to talk about their recent books about the American Revolution this Thursday, September 18th at 7 pm. Hagist will be speaking about his book British Soldiers: American War which details the lives of British soldiers during the American Revolution. Also scheduled is author Todd Andrlik who will speak on his book Reporting the Revolution. The book is a collection of newspaper articles written and published in the colonial newspapers both here in America and in Great Britain. The articles offer insights on the war in America and how these events were viewed by the common people.
Additionally Hagist will offer a glimpse of a new book he is writing based on an 1864 publication Last Men of the Revolution. Recently the Fort Plain Museum, working in cooperation with the Hagist, uncovered research on a 2nd New Hampshire soldier stationed at Fort Plain. The soldier, Samuel Downing was photographed at the age of 102 with what was then a relatively new technology. Hagist is revisiting the topic and exploring the lives of these early veterans who lived well into the middle of the 19th century. [Read more…] about American Revolution Authors At Fort Plain Museum
Revolutionary War Photographs Linked to Fort Plain
The Fort Plain Museum has announced that researchers have located several early photographs (called a carte de visite or CDV) of two Revolutionary War soldiers who served at Fort Plain.
Private Samuel Downing of Captain John Dennett’s Company, Colonel George Reid Commanding, 2nd New Hampshire Regiment, was stationed at Fort Rensselaer/Fort Plain from February 20, 1782 until September 20th that same year when the regiment was transferred to Johnstown. Downing had his picture taken in 1863 as one of the last surviving veterans of the war for American Independence, a time when the American Civil War was at its height. Downing, who had made Edinburgh, NY his home after the Revolution, passed away there three years later in 1866 at the age of 105. [Read more…] about Revolutionary War Photographs Linked to Fort Plain