Focus on History Archives - The Gloversville Leader Herald

01 Sep

Amsterdam woman was pioneer late 1800s, early 1900s union leader — Bob Cudmore’s Focus on History

-0 CommentsLocal News, Montgomery Countyamsterdam, Focus on History, labor

FOCUS ON HISTORY - An Irish immigrant woman who lived and worked in Amsterdam became a national union leader in the 19th century.Leonora Kearney Barry wrote. “Day after day, I sat sewing men’s trousers for five cents a dozen.”Leonora was born in 1849 in Cork. Her parents, John and Honor Kearney, fled the Irish potato famine and settled in Pierrepont in northern New York where her father worked a farm.When Leonora was in her early teens, her mother died. Her father married a woman five years older than his daughter and the two women did not get along. Leonora took…

11 Aug

‘Death rode the wings of the wind’: The story of a 1928 Montgomery County plane crash — Focus on History

-0 CommentsFulton County, Gloversville, Johnstown, Local NewsFocus on History, history, Montgomery County, plane crash

FOCUS ON HISTORY - Three aviators, including a Gloversville native, died Jan. 8, 1928 when their plane crashed into a Montgomery County buckwheat field. Wreckage was found near Rural Grove in the town of Root on the south side of the Mohawk River between Fultonville and Canajoharie. WGY radio in Schenectady, on the air for under six years, broadcast an appeal about the missing aircraft sometime after six p.m. that Sunday.A Mrs. Quackenbush told WGY that she heard a crash and was convinced the plane had fallen.The Gloversville native who perished in the accident was Edward M. Pauley. Born in 1895, Pauley…

29 Jul

Amsterdam and its rye bakeries — Focus on History

-0 CommentsLocal News, Montgomery CountyAmsterdam NY, Belmont Bakery, Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Maldutis Bakery, rye bakeries, SD bakery, Vidulich's Bakery

Rotterdam reader Paul Miknavich proposes another column on Amsterdam’s bakeries. Miknavich said, “When I was a teenager I used to help my dad deliver groceries from my uncle's store, the Forbes Street Market. One of our duties was picking up the warm loaves of rye and pumpernickel [from Maldutis Bakery] for re-sale. Stuff was fantastic, never had any that came close, I suspect it may have been sourdough. Crust like leather and crumb like a damp sponge. Legend has it he took his recipes to the grave.” Maldutis Bakery was founded in 1926 in a section of Amsterdam’s East End…

17 Dec

Focus on History: Heroes helped Northville family survive 1940 fire

-0 CommentsLocal Newsamsterdam, Bob Cudmore, Focus on History

By Bob Cudmore A fire that broke out Wednesday, Oct. 2, 1940, in a first floor apartment on Second Street in Northville almost took the lives of the five children of the Rhodes family who were living there. The oldest was Shirley, born in 1930. She told her mother smoke was coming from one of the bedrooms as she was getting her brothers and sisters up at 8 a.m. Their mother, Esther Rose, got all but one of the children out of the burning building including Shirley, Earl, John and Mary Ann. Three-year old Jimmy was missing. Esther suffered smoke inhalation.…