As some newspapers do today, the Amsterdam Morning Sentinel printed advertisements on its front page on September 17, 1886. Albany jeweler Henry Rowlands had the largest large front page ad and other large ads were taken by Bradford & Dickinson at 46 East Main Street and Larrabee & Barnes, then ...

If and when the proposed pedestrian bridge crosses the Mohawk River in Amsterdam, it will not charge tolls. That wasn’t the case in the early to mid-19th century. According to historian Hugh Donlon’s “Annals of a Mill Town,” the towns of Amsterdam and Florida jointly contracted to build a river ...

The first electric trolley ride between Fonda and Gloversville in 1893 was a surprise wedding gift for the manager of the trolley line. The story is told in Paul K. Larner’s book “Our Railroad: The History of the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad.” The F.J. & G. steam railroad was ...

Early in 1963—a year that would end with the assassination of President Kennedy and begin years of tumult over war and racial issues in America—Montgomery County Republicans gathered to honor one of their own. Assemblyman Donald A. Campbell was guest of honor at a January testimonial dinner dance at St. ...

Growing up in the solidly Democratic Fourth Ward of Amsterdam, I have memories of election days in the 1950s in which school age bullies gave their usual targets a free pass and instead went on the prowl for suspected Republicans. Historian Hugh Donlon has reported that political passions reached a ...

The recent column on World War I prompted a response from a descendant of Ralph Pagliaro, the last Amsterdamian to die in the war. Retired Amsterdam High School principal and drama teacher Bert DeRose wrote that Pagliaro was his uncle, his mother Anna’s brother. A member of Company M of ...

Amsterdam City Hall at 61 Church Street used to be the Sanford mansion, the house on the hill and across the street from the mills operated by the city’s first family of carpet making. Following extensive research, city historian Robert von Hasseln now believes the building used by the Sanfords ...

Congress declared war on Germany in April 1917, bringing America into the World War that had begun three years earlier. The first Amsterdam National Guard members departed for World War I in August of 1917. The first draftees left Amsterdam the next month. Historian High Donlon wrote that there were ...

The first golf course built in the Amsterdam area was the private Antlers Country Club, opened in 1901 on land in Fort Johnson and Tribes Hill off Route 5. Today, the facility is the Rolling Hills Golf Course. According to historian Hugh P. Donlon, a 90-acre site for the course ...

The pending closure of St. Casimir’s Church has brought back memories for Amsterdam native Richard Sidlauscus. The historically Lithuanian church on East Main Street in Amsterdam is to close in May. A second generation American of Lithuanian descent, Sidlauscus now lives in Connecticut and has not lived in Amsterdam in ...