• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

John Morrissey

Hell’s Acres in the Taconic Mountains

February 1, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

a new york minute in history podcastIn this episode of A New York Minute In History Podcast, State Historian Devin Lander and Saratoga County Historian Lauren Roberts tell the story of Boston Corners, also known as Hell’s Acres, which once belonged to Massachusetts, but was ceded to New York State by an act of Congress in 1855. [Read more…] about Hell’s Acres in the Taconic Mountains

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Ancram, boxing, Columbia County, John Morrissey, Massachusetts, Podcasts, railroads, surveying, Taconic Mountains, Vice

1840s Troy: Blacksmith Dan, John Morrissey & Friends

January 6, 2022 by John Warren 1 Comment

Bart Warren's Blacksmith ShopThroughout the 19th century the blacksmith’s shop was a central part of American life. Even the smallest forge was kept busy mending and making the variety of tools and implements for home and garden, for workshop and industry, and tack and shoes for mules, horses and oxen. Blacksmiths were critical to transportation, manufacturing and home life.  Like today’s auto garage, nearly every substantial crossroads had a blacksmith’s shop.

Better shops included the blacksmith, a fireman, a helper, and sometimes a furrier. In 1850 there were more than 150 blacksmiths in Troy, NY, a city of about 30,000 people, including one woman, Canadian Cyrilla Turcott. About half of these smithies were born in Ireland. More blacksmiths of all skill levels could be found in the city’s wagon, carriage and wheelwright shops, or employed in the city’s booming iron industry. [Read more…] about 1840s Troy: Blacksmith Dan, John Morrissey & Friends

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: boxing, Gambling, John Morrissey, Labor History, Rensselaer County, Sports History, Troy, Vice

Taffy Dumbleton: Troy’s ‘Terror of the Town’

October 10, 2021 by John Warren Leave a Comment

19th century riot illustration detailYou could see Charles F. Dumbleton coming for blocks. Although he wasn’t exactly well-dressed, he held his head high and had a swagger that said “I’m coming to YOU.” This despite his uncertain gait, a limp supported by his ever present crutches, which confirmed from a distance it was Taffy – the name given to one of the most notorious men in the city of Troy in the mid-nineteenth century.

He wasn’t always notorious. He had built that reputation over years of street fights, petty thievery and bullying his betters. He was a frequenter of bawdy houses, a bartender, a saloon operator, a gambler and political operative. He was one of the leaders of a band of men. Newspapers and night watchmen called them a gang – “a terror of the town,” but loyal friends on the make is a more accurate description. [Read more…] about Taffy Dumbleton: Troy’s ‘Terror of the Town’

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: clinton correctional facility, Crime and Justice, Gambling, John Morrissey, Political History, Rensselaer County, Troy, Vice

John Morrissey: Toward Setting The Record Straight

February 12, 2021 by John Warren Leave a Comment

Young John Morrissey detail from a painting held by the Saratoa History MuseumJohn Morrissey was born in Ireland on February 12th, in 1831.

As a result of bigoted attacks by his political enemies being carried forward by later writers like Herbert Asbury in Gangs of New York (1928), he’s been falsely accused of being in criminal league with Tammany Hall, for leading “the dead rabbits gang,” and for being involved in the killing of the nativist William “Bill the Butcher” Poole. [Read more…] about John Morrissey: Toward Setting The Record Straight

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City Tagged With: 1876 Election, Boss Tweed, boxing, Cultural History, Fernando Wood, Gambling, Irish Immigrants, John Morrissey, Nativism, New York City, Political History, Rensselaer County, Samuel Tilden, Saratoga County, Saratoga Race Course, Saratoga Springs, Sports History, Tammany Hall, Troy, Vice

Primary Sidebar

Help Support The Almanack

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • David Bentley on Civil War Albany Rises To Action
  • Arlene Steinberg on Sunshine, Coffee and Shoelaces: Keys to Immortality
  • Carol Kammen on Royal Government in the Declaration of Independence
  • Kera Demarest on The Decline of the New York State Museum
  • Pat Fiske on The Rockland County Work Camp That Inspired The Civilian Conservation Corps
  • Rev. John Renolfe Binder, Jr. on Comic Book Artist Jack Binder & Fort William Henry History
  • A Staten Island Side Story in Black History: Bill Richmond’s Punch to Emancipation – The British-American Historian on Staten Island Boxer Bill Richmond Delivered the Punches
  • Paul on The Decline of the New York State Museum
  • Edythe Ann Quinn on Forest Rangers Recover Body From Ausable Chasm, Search for Homicide Evidence
  • Bob Meyer on Cremona to Central Park: Stradivari & Nahan Franko’s Legacy

Recent New York Books

hessians book
The Transcendentalist and their world
“The Amazing Iroquois” and the Invention of the Empire State
american inheritance
Norman Rockwell's Models
The 1947 Utica Blue Sox Book Cover
vanishing point
From the Battlefield to the Stage
field of corpses
Madison's Militia

Secondary Sidebar

Mohawk Valley Trading Company Honey, Honey Comb, Buckwheat Honey, Beeswax Candles, Maple Syrup, Maple Sugar
preservation league