Category: Local history

Contributing writers will sally into archives and recover stories and voices from the past, from many communities in this independent stretch of hills between wide rivers and the Taconic and Hoosic ranges and the Green mountains.

  • Issue:

    Long-serving agent of a Slate Valley lifeline

    GRANVILLE, N.Y. The Granville Sentinel was rooting for the hometown underdog. “In the gold watch voting contest of the Albany Journal for the most popular railroad station agent appears the name of J.H. Reynolds of this village, and who has received thirty-nine votes,” the Sentinel reported on Aug. 8, 1890. “Mr. Reynolds is not likely read more

    Long-serving agent of a Slate Valley lifeline
  • Issue:

    Retired editor ponders newspapers’ decline

    Retired editor ponders newspapers’ decline, collects columns in new book Ken Tingley, the longtime editor of the Glens Falls daily The Post-Star, says the stories of local people are the lifeblood of journalism. Courtesy photo by Jenn March   By MAURY THOMPSONContributing writer GLENS FALLS, N.Y. Ken Tingley, who retired last year after more than read more

    Retired editor ponders newspapers’ decline
  • Issue:

    A top baseball pitcher’s brief run in Rutland

    Baseball experts have suggested for some time that the 19th century pitcher Tony Mullane, who ranks No. 30 for all-time wins in Major League Baseball, should be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. While his pitching exploits and short-fused temper are well known in baseball circles, fewer people know that Mullane, who was nicknamed read more

    A top baseball pitcher’s brief run in Rutland
  • Issue:

    Quarry laborer became nation’s ‘slate king’

    The Gospel of John asks the rhetorical question, “Can any good come out of Nazareth?”In the 19th century, many people around Washington County, N.Y., and Rutland County, Vt., would have answered in the affirmative, providing the question referred to the hamlet of Nazareth in the Nantlle Valley in Gwynedd, Wales. That’s where Hugh W. Hughes, read more

    Quarry laborer became nation’s ‘slate king’
  • Issue:

    Amid the day’s news, advice for the heart

    Quick-thinking newspaper editors in the 19th century came up with puns and jokes to fill any white space left on pages after the news and advertising were laid out. It’s not clear if deadline pressures percolated Zen-like moments of inspiration or if, like a beat reporter, editors kept notebooks of quirky humorous material from which read more

    Amid the day’s news, advice for the heart
  • Issue:

    Winning team fueled a village’s passion for baseball

    The start-up, semi-professional baseball team in Granville, N.Y., had a perfect record for the season so far, and local businessmen decided the village needed a new ballfield that would fit the team’s caliber. “Granville has the baseball fever in the worst way,” The Granville Sentinel reported on Aug. 9, 1889. A local investment group met read more

    Winning team fueled a village’s passion for baseball
  • Issue:

    On the seventh day, local blue laws ruled

    The 1886 Independence Day celebration in Glens Falls took on the feeling of a New Year’s Eve party when July Fourth fell on a Sunday, delaying the festivities until Monday, July 5. “When the hands of the clock passed the hour of midnight this morning, removing the restraints of the Sabbath, a score of patriotic read more

    On the seventh day, local blue laws ruled
  • Issue:

    Presidential loss cost local congressman his seat

    President Chester Arthur, who was born in Vermont and lived for a portion of his childhood in Greenwich, N.Y., was loyal to his friends. “His credo was stay by your friends — fight your enemies,” The Granville Sentinel wrote on Nov. 26, 1886. U.S. Rep. Henry G. Burleigh, R-Whitehall, was “a warm personal friend” of read more

    Presidential loss cost local congressman his seat
  • Issue:

    A mountain retreat for a president’s last days

    A mountain in Saratoga County gained its stature as the place where Ulysses S. Grant died from throat cancer on July 23, 1885. By Maury Thompson read more

    A mountain retreat for a president’s last days
  • Issue:

    Knitting, weaving through a dark season

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    Farmers come together with skilled workers from textile mills, artists and locals who like the feel of making things by hand. By Kate Abbott read more

    Knitting, weaving through a dark season