August 6th marks the anniversary of the 1777 Battle of Oriskany. Fought as an American relief column marched to aid the besieged Fort Stanwix, about 800 Tryon County militiamen and 60 allied Oneida warriors under Brigadier General Nicholas Herkimer were ambushed by British, Loyalist, and Indigenous forces (including Mohawk and Seneca warriors). [Read more…] about August 6th Marks 1777 Battle of Oriskany Anniversary
Herkimer
Grace Brown, Her Murderer Chester Gillette & Old Herkimer Jailhouse
In 1906, the murder of the pregnant Grace Brown by her boyfriend Chester Gillette at Big Moose Lake in northern Herkimer County became one of New York State’s most widely followed criminal cases.
The two met at Gillette’s uncle’s skirt factory in Cortland, NY, where they became involved and Brown became pregnant. Refusing to accept responsibility, he made arrangements for a trip to the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Grace Brown, Her Murderer Chester Gillette & Old Herkimer Jailhouse
Rare New York Fossil Highlights Decline of Naraoia Arthropod
A newly published scientific paper is revealing insights into a rare fossil from the Silurian Period (the third period of the Paleozoic Era), estimated to be around 420 million years old. Part of the New York State Museum’s collection, this specimen of Naraoia bertiensis is one of only two known fossils of its kind ever discovered from this era. [Read more…] about Rare New York Fossil Highlights Decline of Naraoia Arthropod
The Old Mohawk Turnpike: New York’s Road West
The old Mohawk Turnpike between what are now Albany and Rome, NY, was originally an Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) trail used frequently by Mohawk and Oneida people in particular, but many others as well.
For the first two hundred years of European settlement it was the only major link between the Hudson River and the Great Lakes. It became an important national transportation connection. [Read more…] about The Old Mohawk Turnpike: New York’s Road West
James Colby Harrington: Con Man Extraordinaire
In 1898, James Colby Harrington was known in Schuylerville as an honest and friendly young man, yet only four years later he had gained the title “Schuylerville’s Star Swindler.”
And that is only the beginning, as this story spans 30 years and traverses a thousand miles as it follows the life of this notorious con man. [Read more…] about James Colby Harrington: Con Man Extraordinaire
George Nellis’ 1887 Cycling Odyssey Across America
In 1887 twenty-one-year-old newspaperman George Nellis (1865–1948) rode a bicycle from Herkimer, New York, to San Francisco in seventy-two days, surpassing the transcontinental bicycle record by several weeks.
He averaged fifty miles a day pedaling a fifty-two-inch, high-wheeled Columbia Expert “ordinary” bicycle with a tubular steel frame and hard rubber tires, and he lost twenty-three pounds in the process. [Read more…] about George Nellis’ 1887 Cycling Odyssey Across America
Central Adirondacks Lumbering Operations (1880-1900)
After achieving his railroad dream and completing his Nehasane wilderness refuge – reachable using his own luxury rail car – William Seward Webb found himself in a major conflict with the State of New York.
Inlet historian Charles Herr tells this part of the story expertly, in his history of the Fulton Chain. My map here highlights that land aquisition by the State in yellow, totaling 74,585 acres of Brown’s Tract and in the Totten & Crossfield Purchase. Webb retained ownership of lakes like Twitchell and Big Moose because he intended those for later cottage and hotel sales. [Read more…] about Central Adirondacks Lumbering Operations (1880-1900)