New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Schoharie County

Palatines in the Mohawk Valley: 300 Years of History

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Palatine settlementThe earliest European settlers in the Mohawk Valley came from what is now southwestern Germany. Under near constant threat of destruction, whether from multiple wars, invasions, or the plague, in the near hundred years leading up to the 18th century, the southwest German population experienced extreme hardship.

In some cases, entire towns and villages were wiped out. Commercial crops in the vineyards either failed or were destroyed. Invading French armies added to the hardship by burdening residents with housing and supporting soldiers, albeit with scant family resources, forcing many German homeowners to flee. [Read more…] about Palatines in the Mohawk Valley: 300 Years of History

Berne’s West Mountain Methodist Episcopal Church: Some History

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West Mountain ME Church in BerneThe 1609 voyage by Henry Hudson up the river that bears his name caused the Dutch to claim the adjacent land. In 1621 these lands, the home of the Mohawk and Mohican people, were granted to the Dutch West India Company. The company established the Patroon System to attract settlers. A Patroon was given a large tract of land to sponsor settlers to colonize their land.

In 1629 the new Patroon, Killaen Van Rensselaer, was granted land to create the Manor of Rensselaerswyck in exchange for helping settle the land with Europeans. It incorporated most of the area in Albany, Rensselaer, Greene, and Columbia counties. Fort Orange (later the city of Albany), became the center of the Dutch fur trade. [Read more…] about Berne’s West Mountain Methodist Episcopal Church: Some History

Old Stone Fort Museum Acquires New Folk Art Paintings

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Local artist John Wilkinson presents a painting to Schoharie County Historical SocietyThe Schoharie County Historical Society has announced the acquisition of two John Wilkinson original folk art paintings which will be added to the society’s permanent collection.

The pieces each depict the historic Hartmansdorf House, located on the Old Stone Fort Museum Complex grounds in Schoharie, NY, at two important milestones in the historical society’s history. [Read more…] about Old Stone Fort Museum Acquires New Folk Art Paintings

Palatines In The Helderbergs: The Zeh and Warner Sawmill

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part of Cockburn’s 1787 survey map The people we call Palatines were displaced during the turmoil of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). More than 13,000 mostly, though exclusively, Protestant Germans from the Middle Rhine region of the Holy Roman Empire first fled to England.

Known then as “Poor Palatines,” opposition to their immigration resulted in nearly 3,000 of them (about a third the size of the population of the city of New York) being sent to the colonial Province of New York in 1710. Many were forced to work off their passages at at work camps on Livingston Manor.  In 1712, more than a hundred other families, sought new lives in the Schoharie Valley, then a frontier between the English, French, and Native People. From there, some moved to the Helderberg Escarpment, in what is now Western Albany County. [Read more…] about Palatines In The Helderbergs: The Zeh and Warner Sawmill

A Historians Podcast Highlights Show

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The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, a Highlights Episode. Jim Kaplan on Rich Rescorla’s heroism in the 2001 World Trade Center attack, Bob Cudmore has stories from his Daily Gazette and Recorder newspaper history columns, Joyce Stah on the history of WMHT’s audio service for the blind, Katie Turner Getty on Britain’s use of prison ships in the American Revolution, Dana Cudmore on exploring caves in Schoharie and Albany counties. [Read more…] about A Historians Podcast Highlights Show

When History Is Wrong: The Albany County ‘Dietz Massacre’

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painting of Dietz Massacre by James DietzDuring the Revolutionary War the little community of Beaver Dam (sometimes spelled Beaverdam) in what is now Berne, Albany County, NY saw little action.

The British and their Indigenous allies repeatedly attacked the communities in the Schoharie Valley to the west however, despite the presence of a large militia and three forts to protect the people of Schoharie. [Read more…] about When History Is Wrong: The Albany County ‘Dietz Massacre’

New York’s Cave Country (Podcast)

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The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, Dana Cudmore is the author of Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure and Enterprise in New York’s Cave Country (Black Dome Press, 2021). Cudmore focuses on caves of Schoharie and Albany counties, including the Howe Caverns tourist attraction. [Read more…] about New York’s Cave Country (Podcast)

Underground Empires: A New History Of New York’s Cave Country

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Underground EmpiresBook purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.

The new book Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure & Enterprise in New York’s Cave Country (Black Dome Press, 2021), by Dana Cudmore with foreword by Robert & Johanna Titus, explores the history of caves in Albany and Schoharie Counties, and describes the personal and engineering accomplishments that turned some into popular tourist destinations. [Read more…] about Underground Empires: A New History Of New York’s Cave Country

Early Settlement Above The Helderberg Escarpment

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Detail of John Bleeker made a map of the van Rensselaer's patroonship, Rensselaerswijck, 1767, showing unidentified farms above the Helderberg escarpmentFrom 1630 until the Anti-Rent Movement of the 1840s, most of what is now Albany and Rensselaer Counties, along with parts of Columbia and Greene Counties, was part of the estate of the van Rensselaer family. They leased the land, but did not generally sell it.

Running north-south through Albany County is the Helderberg Escarpment, a vertical limestone cliff hundreds of feet high (Thatcher Park forms a part of this geologic feature) that separates the Hudson Valley lands in the eastern part of the county from the lands to the west, above the cliffs. Because the land above was difficult to reach, and the soils poorer, that area was settled somewhat later by Europeans. [Read more…] about Early Settlement Above The Helderberg Escarpment

A New Book About Schoharie’s Old Stone Fort

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The new book Old Stone Fort – Guardian of Schoharie County History Since 1772 by Jeff O’Connor features over 79 maps, illustrations, and photographs that help narrate the history of one of upstate New York’s oldest and most beloved museums. [Read more…] about A New Book About Schoharie’s Old Stone Fort