History, Natural History & the Arts
In 2021, while browsing the shelves at Berry Hill Bookstore, just outside of Deansboro, in Oneida County, NY, I noticed an old book entitled New York COMMISSIONERS for Detecting and Defeating CONSPIRACIES.
The book described this commission’s origins, powers, and jurisdictional controversies. Among the topics were stories of counterfeiters, deserters, murders, robbers, plunderers and more. [Read more…] about New York’s Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies
Saratoga County, NY, has seen nine generations come and go in the almost 235 years since it was carved out from Albany County in 1791. Settlers moved in, established farms, mills, and small communities. Several of these communities have become villages, cities and suburban towns.
Others have remained hamlets and become forgotten crossroads – still vibrant communities with a rich history of memories. Still others have disappeared altogether, no longer visible or remembered. [Read more…] about Rowland’s Hollow: A Lost Crossroads in Saratoga County
Few of us think back to the troubled times when the farmers of Rensselaer, Columbia and Albany counties were involved in sometimes violent demonstrations against rents collected by the Manor of Rensselaerswijck and the feudal conditions imposed by the land leases of the semi-feudal patroon.
It can be said to have started in the 1790s when Stephen Van Rensselaer III encouraged the development of his land holdings stretching from the Helderbergs in Western Albany County east to the Rensselaer Plateau in Eastern Rensselaer County, which dated back to the original Dutch grants in 1629 made to Kiliaen van Rensselaer (1586-1643). [Read more…] about Rensselaer County Rises for the Anti-Rent War
In 1880, the first eight Game Protectors began serving to protect the natural resources of New York State. In 2022, Environmental Conservation Police Officers (ECOs) and Investigators across the state responded to more than 25,600 calls. What follows are recently reported incidents involving wildlife rescues: [Read more…] about Recent Wildlife Rescues & Encounters: Rattler, Owl, Eagle, Turtle & Rabid Fox
During the turmoil of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), many Protestant Germans from the Middle Rhine region of the Holy Roman Empire fled to England, with the largest group of refugees – some 13,000 – arriving there in 1709.
The arrival of these “Poor Palatines” caused a rise in opposition to immigration in England. Most were quickly sent to Ireland, but nearly 3,000 were sent on 10 ships to the colonial Province of New York (a group about a third the size of the population of the city of New York at that time). [Read more…] about The Palatines Along Hoosick Road in Rensselaer County
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