History, Natural History & the Arts
The Oneida County History Center (OCHC) has named Rebecca M. McLain as the new Executive Director.
McLain is the first woman to hold the position of Executive Director of the Center, which was founded in 1876. [Read more…] about Oneida History Center Names New Director, 1st Woman To Hold Position
During the Great Depression of the 1930s the federal government started numerous programs to provide jobs. One, based on an earlier New York State program established by then Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
The CCC employed about 3.5 million young men nationwide, with about 210,00 of them at 116 camps across New York State. The camps, for men only, were supervised by the U.S. Army and the Soil Conservation Commission. [Read more…] about A Visit To The Deansboro, Oneida Co, CCC Camp
Before the Civil War fugitive slave laws were passed (notably in 1787, 1793, and 1850) to encourage the capture and re-enslavement of people who had run away from slavery.
In New York, abolitionist sentiment was particularly strong, though not universal. Many New Yorkers believed that only the federal government could regulate slavery, and they had spoken on the matter to give wide support for the recapture of escaped enslaved people. [Read more…] about Utica Slave Rescues And Slavers
History shows that several pandemics have struck in New York State – one of the less remembered is known as the Second Cholera Pandemic of 1832.
New York was among the most thoroughly scourged among the states.
[Read more…] about The Cholera Pandemic of 1832 in New York State
A celebrity sports delegation attended the Saint Lawrence University commencement on June 12, 1933.
“It was the first occasion that a major league ball team had ever came here to see one of their number receive his degree,” the Ogdensburg Journal reported. “In fact, it was the first time that such a ball team ever came to the village.”
Twenty-two members of the New York Giants were at the university campus at Canton to see standout pitcher Harold Henry “Prince Hal” Schumacher graduate. [Read more…] about ‘Prince Hal’ Schumacher: A North Country Baseball Legend
Sometime around 1797, a baby boy of African descent was born in Oneida County. He didn’t live a very long life, yet his experiences reveal much about the institution of slavery in New York State.
All we know for certain about Frank Johnson’s birthdate is that it preceded the passage of the 1799 Gradual Emancipation Act, thereby making him a “slave for life,” as he was called by the man who owned him according to the law. That man, Alexander Bryan Johnson, born in England in 1786, followed his father to Utica, New York arriving in 1801. There he became an important man, involved with the merchandising business, banking, writing, and gaining recognition as a public intellectual. There is still a park named after him in Utica. [Read more…] about Frank Johnson’s Story: An Enslaved Man’s Experiences
The ranks of the 10th Mountain Division during World War Two were filled by men who in civilian life were already proficient in skiing and mountaineering.
They were shipped to the Italian front and their actions in the Apennine Mountains and the Alps led to the German surrender in Italy on May 2, 1945. The division was disbanded in late 1945, but reestablished in the 1980s, and is based today at Fort Drum, in Watertown, New York. [Read more…] about 10th Mtn Division in World War II Talk in Utica
The Oneida County History Center is set to return to the Sangertown Square Mall in Utica for its 10th year this coming holiday season to operate its satellite bookstore. The store will be located in Center Court by Mr. Smoothie & Zales, and provides extended hours to meet your busy holiday schedule. It also offers a great selection of local history titles and merchandise. [Read more…] about History Center Bookstore Returning to Utica Mall
The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee are a historically powerful northeast Native American confederacy in North America. Storytelling is an important component of Haudenosaunee culture. Oral traditions and legends have been passed from generation to generation, teaching communities how to live, act, and care for one another, as well as how to manage during the unpredictable seasons. [Read more…] about Haudenosaunee Folklore & Indigenous Tales in Utica
This week on The Historians Podcast, Army veteran and Utica College student David Cooney discusses his research on upstate New York prisoner of war camps where German soldiers were housed during the Second World War. One such camp was near today’s Fort Drum and another was in Utica. [Read more…] about World War II POW Camps in Upstate New York