50th Willard Hanmer Guideboat Race:Largest Gathering of Adirondack Guideboats Ever?

On Sunday July 1, 2012 will mark the 50th annual Willard Hanmer Guideboat Race commemorating Willard Hanmer the preeminent Guide Boat builder of his era. The race has been celebrated every year since 1962 on the Sunday closest to the 4th of July.

This year, to celebrate the craftsmanship of this uniquely Adirondack craft, the organizers are planning a display of over 50 guideboats in a guideboat parade on Lake Flower prior to the race. Following the parade will be guideboat, canoe and kayak races.

This year the one-person guideboat race will follow the traditional route on Lake Flower, carry around the dam and down the Saranac River to the Fish and Game Club where there will be food, refreshments ands festivities for the whole family. Canoes and kayaks will be following the one person guideboat course, also going down the river. For those wishing to race in either the guideboat, recreational canoe or kayak classes contact: [email protected].

According to the Historic Saranac Lake Wiki (a great local online history source) Willard J. Hanmer, the son of Thoedore J. Hanmer &#8220began working in his father’s boat shop as a child in about 1910, sticking tacks, caning seats and sanding hulls. He built his own shop in the 1920s.&#8221 The guideboat parade will be open to anyone wishing to display their guideboat. Natalie Bombard Corl Leduc, a participant in the inaugural race invites all past participants of the race to row in the parade. For those wishing to display their guideboats or participate in the guideboat parade contact: [email protected].

State Museum Launches War of 1812 Website

The New York State Museum has launched a new statewide website and Facebook page dedicated to commemorating the bicentennial of the War of 1812.

The website is expected to include a web-based exhibition and hoped to be a statewide clearinghouse for information about New York’s pivotal role in the War of 1812, as well as for all War of 1812 events across New York State and into Canada. The goal is to provide a site for conversation and coordination among all of those interested in commemorating the memory of the war.

The New York-Canadian border was the central front of the war, which was waged against the British Empire from June 18, 1812 to February 18, 1815. Some of the nation’s most prominent military figures of the early 19th century made their names along New York State’s northern frontier. Several pivotal battles also took place in the state, including the battle of Plattsburgh in September 1814.

“The War of 1812 is a ‘New York story’ and so too is our effort to commemorate this important bicentennial,” said Museum Director Mark Schaming. “We have reached out to historians, historical societies and various other collaborators and partners across the state and into Canada, inviting them to join with us in telling this story and making this the ‘go-to’ place to learn about the war and the many events planned to commemorate it.”

The website will be a growing and evolving statewide resource for the duration of the bicentennial commemorations. Interested historians – from academics to genealogists – will have an opportunity to submit 1812-related stories, whether they are biographies of local citizens or essays on New York-related events. A page devoted to biographies highlights valiant and patriotic men and women who contributed their time, energies, and in some cases, made the ultimate sacrifice to aid the war effort.

The site also provides a platform for historical societies and museums across the state to highlight their War of 1812 collections in a virtual artifact gallery. The site currently displays historic artifacts related to the War that are in the collections of the State Museum, State Library and State Archives.

A resources page lists website links for War of 1812 commemorative events and organizations, as well as for State Library resources and State Archives records.

Delaware County: Living History Cemetery Tour

Ten area residents will portray people from Middletown’s past in an unusual fundraising event to be held Saturday, June 30 by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM), Delaware County.

In the “Living History Tour of Margaretville Cemetery,” costumed portrayers will bring to life artists and farmers, lawyers and raftsmen, doctors and editors who now lie beneath the sod. Docents will lead visitors through the picturesque grounds to meet each subject and hear about their occupations, their lives and their loves.

The one-hour, evening tour, offered every 20 minutes between 6 and 8 p.m., begins with a welcome at the cemetery gate from Undertaker Charles Gorsch. Other subjects include J. Francis and Adah Murphy, founders of the Pakatakan Artists Colony in Arkville- farmer George Hendricks- doctor, legislator, editor and anti-war advocate Orson Allaben- famed outdoorsman and animal trainer Niles Fairbairn- legendary log raft steersman Erastus Clute- beloved Margaretville Hospital founder Dr. Gordon Maurer- and attorney Ward DeSilva and his milliner wife Maragaret, whose bright futures were cut short in the 1919 flu epidemic.

Tickets are $10- $5 for children aged 8-15. Rain date is July 1.

For more information on HSM events and activities, visit www.mtownhistory.org, or email [email protected].

This Weeks New York History Web Highlights

Each Friday afternoon New York History compiles for our readers the previous week’s top weblinks about New York’s state and local history. You can find all our weekly round-ups here.

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Coleman Collectors to Light-Up Lake George

It’s probably safe to say most everyone who has ventured into Adirondack woods or waters in the last 50 years has at some time used a Coleman product.

The company once sold Skiroule snowmobiles, Hobie Cat sailboats, and even its on pop-up trailers, but most recreationists are familiar with some of the smaller Coleman products: coolers, canoes and other small boats, sleeping bags, tents, backpacks, and the ubiquitous camp stoves and Coleman lanterns.

The company was  founded in 1900 by William Coffin Coleman, known as  &#8220W. C.&#8221, and a  former school school principal working as a typewriter salesman who founded the company while earning money for law school.  Coleman’s obsession with a lantern that burned a bright white light is matched by legions of Coleman collectors, who pour over the company’s American made designs (Coleman was born in Columbia County, NY and moved to the mid-west) and trade stories and knowledge.

The International Coleman Collectors Club will hold it’s 20th Anniversary Convention at the Fort William Henry Convention Center in Lake George on June 28th and 30th [link]. The event, the first convention to be held in the Northeast, will feature collectors from throughout the United States and Canada and as far away as Germany, Denmark, and The Philippines.  Thirty-eight tables filled with Coleman products from the early 1900s onward, some for sale, and a seminars on lantern restoration, how mantles are made, and the Coleman Model 202 Professional lantern, a nickle-plated beauty made from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s. A highlight of the event will be two outdoor Coleman &#8220light-ups&#8221.

Steve and Robin Miller of Queensbury are serving as hosts of the gathering. &#8220I thought this would be a perfect place to hold a camping equipment show, right here in Lake George,&#8221 Steve Miller told me.  &#8220We thought that this would be a great place for the collectors from around the world, as it is very beautiful here and there is so much to do,&#8221 he said,  &#8220Lake George also has the only Coleman outlet store in the northeast, just a few miles up the road from the convention center.&#8221

The Millers have been collecting Coleman gear for about 25 years and have about 200 Coleman lanterns, stoves, gas irons, and more, but they are quick to point out that there will be even more knowledgeable &#8220Coleman people&#8221 at the convention, including several who have worked at the Coleman company in Wichita, KS over the years.

The event will be open to the public on Saturday only, from 9 am to 1 pm, but it’s not too late to register for the convention (pdf).

Two &#8220light-ups&#8221 will be held. The first in the Fort William Henry parking lot on Thursday at 8:30 pm, and the second on Friday night at the Georgian Resort’s beach, beginning about 7-8:00 pm (bring your lanterns!).

Photos: Above, Steve and Robin Miller, Coleman Collectors- Below, part of the Millers’ large Coleman lantern collection.

This Weeks Top New York History News

  • Preservation League Honoring Margaret Wendt Foundation
  • Assembly Passes Historic Tax Credit Bill
  • Cuts Proposed to NEH Budget
  • Economic Historian Anna Schwartz Dies
  • New Historic Church Plan Floated
  • Railroad Into Newcomb Approved
  • Township 40 Bill Passes Legislature
  • Cayuga Museum Opens Renovated Theater
  • Each Friday morning New York History compiles for our readers the previous week’s top stories about New York’s state and local history. You can find all our weekly news round-ups here.

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    A Black American’s View on the Fourth of July

    160 years ago the former slave Frederick Douglass was asked to give a speech on the Fourth of July. Douglass refused to speak on July 4, but did deliver a powerfulspeech the day after Independence Day. He asked the audience “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” “What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” “The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you. Not me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. The Fourth of July is yours, not mine.”

    On July 1, 2012 at 2 p.m. at the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) to which Frederick Douglass was the first inductee, David A. Anderson Ph.D. Visiting Scholar at Nazareth College of Rochester will present an oration of Douglass’ speech asking what Independence Day meant to the American slave. A founding member of Akwaaba: the Heritage Associates, Anderson is an interpreter of living history through reenactments that evoke Frederick Douglass, Austin Steward, unheralded escapees, et al. Often the theme addresses the essential role African American Union soldiers played in freeing a people and preserving the Union. He has presented such recreations at symposia in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and in other venues.

    Anderson chairs Rochester-Monroe County Freedom Trail Commission, which in 2003, took the lead in staging, &#8220Men of Color, to Arms!&#8221 a conference illuminating Frederick Douglass’ role in overturning policies barring African Americans from the Union Army. In 2007, with the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center inCincinnati, the Commission co-sponsored the Frederick Douglass International Underground Railroad Conference. In June 2009, Anderson joined other honorees at the National Mall in Washington in “Giving Voice: The Power of Words in African American Culture,” an exploration of the expressive power of the creative African American oral traditions in the shaping of American culture.

    Douglass spoke at anti-slavery conventions in Peterboro and in the Free Church of Peterboro which Gerrit Smith had established. Douglass worked with Smith in organizing the 1850 Anti-Fugitive Slave Law Convention in Cazenovia, New York. Smith made large and regular donations of money to Douglass in order to keep solvent Douglass’ anti-slavery efforts through his newspapers The North Star and Frederick Douglass’ paper. Douglass dedicated the second edition of his autobiography to Gerrit Smith whom he considered a great man because of his practical efforts to implement universal human rights. Douglass’ relationship with Smith was also on a very personal level. He visited Peterboro often, bringing with him colleagues and other members of his family for extended visits as early as 1835. Following the two o’clock program, Norman K. Dann PhD, a Gerrit Smith biographer, will conduct a tour of Douglass’ steps at the Gerrit Smith Estate describing the relationship between the two men.

    This program is supported by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities for the Abolition Agitation in New York Sparks War for Liberty and Justice for All2012 NAHOF project. Admission to the program and to the exhibits at the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road in Peterboro is three dollars and free to students. 

    The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum is included in the Madison County Cultural Heritage Passport with its companion heritage site the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark. Both sites are open Saturdays and Sundays form 1 – 5 from May 19 to September 23, by appointment,and for special events. For more information [email protected] and 315-366-8101

    New Contributor: Independent Historian Kathleen Hulser

    Please join us in welcoming our newest contributor Kathleen Hulser. Hulser is an independent historian who manages cultural projects and teaches at New School in New York.

    She is currently working on a smartphone augmented reality interpretation of the War of 1812. Her interests include urban history, slavery, women, public space and the social history of the nineteenth century, especially popular disorders. She also gives walking tours, workshops, curates exhibitions and conducts digital humanities sessions.

    NY Sports History Lecture: The Schenectady Blue Jays

    Local baseball historian Frank Keetz will present a lecture entitled &#8220The Schenectady Blue Jays, 1946-1957&#8243- on Saturday, June 30, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. at the Schenectady County Historical Society, 32 Washington Avenue, Schenectady.The Schenectady Blue Jays baseball team, an affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, originated in 1946. The team played their home games at McNearney Stadium in Schenectady until disbanding in 1957. Frank Keetz, local baseball historian and author, will trace the history of the team and its impact in the area.

    Keetz has written several publications about sports in the Schenectady area, including They, Too, Were ‘Boys of Summer:’ A Case Study of the Schenectady Blue Jays in the Eastern League 1951-1957, Class ‘C’ Baseball: A Case Study of the Schenectady Blue Jays in the Canadian-American League 1946-1950, and The Mohawk Colored Giants of Schenectady.

    The cost of admission is $5.00, or free for Schenectady County Historical Society members. For more information contact Melissa Tacke, Librarian/Archivist at the Schenectady County Historical Society, at 518-374-0263 or by email at [email protected]. The Schenectady County Historical Society is wheelchair accessible, with off-street parking behind the building and overflow parking next door at the YWCA.Photo: Tommy Lasorda, member of the 1948 Schenectady Blue Jays team (courtesy &#8216-Cats Corner)

    Lawrence Gooley: New York State’s Anti-Loafing Law

    History can offer valuable perspective on solutions to some of our problems, and can play an important role in how we view the present and future. It can also just plain surprise us by telling us more about who we are. For instance, most of us would agree that America is all about civil rights and personal freedom, two guarantees that are considered sacred.It would be difficult for us to imagine a situation where, even in times of war or unemployment, citizens would be forced to work, or where young people would be required to take part in military training. While such measures sound very foreign to a democracy, unemployment was once declared illegal in a very familiar place. Idle men were forced to take jobs selected for them by local lawmen, and each man was required to work a minimum of 36 hours per week.

    The government also passed a law ordering all teenagers 16 or older to attend military drills or perform military duties. Doing so earned them a certificate that was very important: without it, young men could not “attend public or private school or obtain employment.” That’s how it was written into the law.What nation would order its citizens in such fashion? If we had to guess, most of us would name a communist country from the past, or a dictatorship in some far off land. Either could be right, but in this case, the country was much closer to home. In fact, that’s the answer: home.The New York State Anti-Loafing Law was passed in 1918, less than a year after the US entered WW I. Maryland and New Jersey passed their versions first, and we were next. The law required all men between the ages of 18 and 50 to be “habitually and regularly engaged in some lawful, useful, and recognized business, profession, occupation, trade, or employment until the termination of the war.”If a man didn’t have a job, a local authority was assigned to choose one for him. And no one could turn down a job because of the level of pay. Every man had to work. It was the law.The law’s description of “useful” work had its implications as well. By order of the federal government, American men between the ages of 21 and 30 were “not permitted to be elevator conductors, club porters, waiters, pool room attendants, lifeguards at summer resorts, valets, butlers, footmen, chefs, janitors, or ushers in amusement places.”Men of that age were needed for war. It’s interesting that those jobs, except for lifeguard at summer resorts, were generally filled by poorer folks who were serving the wealthy. Their work was considered plenty useful until war broke out. Suddenly, their jobs were declared “non-useful,” and many of them were consigned to the military. New York’s government, indicating there would be few exceptions to the new state law, fed the media a wonderful sound bite taken directly from the text of the statute: “Loitering in the streets, saloons, depots, poolrooms, hotels, stores, and other places is considered prima facie evidence of violation of the act, punishable by a fine of $100 or imprisonment for three months, or both.” My innate cynicism notices no mention of hanging out (loitering) at gentlemen’s resorts, sporting clubs, and other places frequented by the idle rich. Charles Whitman, governor of New York, added: “The purpose … is to force every able-bodied male person within the State to do his share toward remedying the conditions due to the present shortage of labor.” Whitman had a good reason for signing the law shortly after New Jersey passed theirs: if he didn’t, men from New Jersey would flood across the border into New York State to avoid being forced to either work or fight. The governor ensured they would find no safe haven here.The methods of enforcement were clearly spelled out: “The state Industrial Commission will cooperate with the sheriffs, the state police, and other peace officers throughout the state to find the unemployed and to assign them to jobs, which they must fill. It will be no defense to anyone seeking to avoid work to show that he has sufficient income or means to live without work. The state has the right to the productive labor of all its citizens.”That’s right … lawmen would track down the unemployed and assign them to a job. Even if a person had enough savings to survive for a few years, the law required everyone to work.At the time, Governor Whitman admitted, “there may be some question as to the constitutionality of the law,” but enforcement began on June 1, 1918. Sheriffs across the state were required to act, and they did.  Some, like Clinton County Sheriff John Fiske, made sure there were no scofflaws, scouring local establishments as the law instructed, looking for loiterers.Those who were jailed in Clinton County had to pay a fine and serve their time, just like the law said, but they weren’t allowed to sit idle. Fiske put them to work full-time in the community, ensuring they complied with both the letter and the intent of the law.On the surface, those laws seem absolutely un-American and undemocratic. The argument was a familiar one: extreme times (WW I) call for extreme measures. Other states and countries (including Canada) passed similar laws during the war. Maybe New Yorkers were lucky. In Virginia, compliance was extended from ages 16 to 60?teens to senior citizens!In comparison, the wars of recent years have been viewed by the general population with complacency, and the suffering has largely been borne by military personnel and their families. Perhaps we would be less likely to enter such conflicts if, as in some past wars, every single citizen was impacted, and everyone had to sacrifice.

    The story of New York State’s Anti-Loafing Law is one of 51 original North Country history pieces appearing in Adirondack Gold: 50+ New & True Stories You’re Sure to Love (352 pp.), a recent release by author Lawrence Gooley, owner of Bloated Toe Publishing.