History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 120: The City of Gloversville, continued ...
The following added Gloversville historical and general matter is furnished by the editor of this work.
It covers certain Gloversville features other than those described in Mr. Carl's interesting contribution.
While the majority of the early settlers of Gloversville were New Englanders, or Yankees, a great proportion of them were of "Mohawk Dutch" stock — that is, of Holland Dutch or Palatine ancestry.
This is shown by the number of "Vans" in the Gloversville and Johnstown phone books.
The Vans number 111 in the two cities, which is significant considering the fact that this Holland Dutch prefix has been dropped from many names which originally bore it.
Johnstown and Gloversville have a population which is largely American in contrast to other cities of similar size.
The two Fulton County cities have a combined population about equal to that of Amsterdam, which, however, has a much smaller proportion of Mohawk Dutch in its ancestral antecedents.
Gloversville's retail trade draws patronage from the middle Mohawk Valley as well as from Fulton and Hamilton County.
The junction of Fulton and Main streets is indeed "the busy corner", as it is aptly termed locally.
Gloversville has handsome Eccentric Club and Elks Club houses, a very fine Masonic Temple, a large and architecturally imposing high school, an interesting statue group monument to Civil War veterans, and a (1924) statue of a World War buddy, erected by the Gloversville post of the American Legion, as well as many other architectural and civic features of interest.
Company H, One Hundred and Fifth Infantry, N. G. S. N. Y., has its armory at 87 Washington Street.
Its history and distinguished World War record are given in a separate chapter devoted to this noted local military organization, now a part of the United States regular army.
Gloversville has a most interesting history.
Its site has virtually been cleared in the Adirondack wilderness, the forests of which look down on the city from the northern summits.
In 1786 nothing but the Sacandaga trail connected the present cities of Johnstown and Gloversville.
Blazed, or axe-scarred trees showed the way to the New England settlers who came up the Mohawk and through Johnstown to settle in this section, then known as Kingsborough, by which name the northern Gloversville neighborhood is still known.
The first Yankee settlers came here soon after the close of the Revolution in 1783.
Families by the name of Burr, Ward, Giles, Mills, Throop, Mann, Bedford, Jones, Lord, Heacock, Griswold, Wilson, Crossett, Greig and Lindley were among the first settlers.
The first church (Methodist Episcopal) was built in the Kingsborough section in 1790, and the first school, in the city limits, was opened in 1800.
A mill and tavern also were built about 1800.
Leather manufacture and leather mitten manufacture developed about 1806-1809.
In 1816 the place was called "Stump City", with reference to the clearings in the forest which then covered most of the present city.
The first store was opened in 1828.
Gloversville had fourteen houses and about 100 population in 1830, after which date it grew rapidly.
In 1851 it was incorporated as a village, then having about 350 houses and a modern steam-heated, gas-lighted hotel was built.
In 1857 it had 500 houses and nearly 3,000 population.
In 1854 Union Seminary was built, which was incorporated as a building of the public school system in 1868.
The Civil War boomed glove manufacture.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 120: The City of Gloversville, continued ...
Prior to the Civil War, manufactured leather gloves or mittens were legal tender in Gloversville.
Nearly all trade was by barter and settlement was made by merchants, manufacturers and artisans on January first.
In 1870 the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad was constructed, and in 1875 this road was extended to Northville.
In 1890 Gloversville became a city.
In 1919 Gloversville had 206 factories, with 6,331 primary horsepower and capital of $27,616,000, 6,704 workers receiving $7,559,000 annually, and a yearly manufactured production of $38,913,000. (1920 U. S. Census report.)
The Fulton-Hamilton Counties Fair is annually held at Gloversville.
All pioneers learned the art of tanning deer skins from the Indians, using the deer's brains or hog's brains in the process instead of the soda ash "fat liquor" later in use.
Deer skins were then used for all kinds of clothing, moccasins and mittens, and were especially prized for breeches on account of wearing qualities.
These skins were plentiful, cheap and often a drug on the market.
Ezekiel Case settled in Kingsboro in 1806 and tanned leather and made leather mittens.
In 1807 Tallmadge Edwards, an English leather dresser, settled in Johnstown.
James Burr of Gloversville brought Edwards to this place and the manufacture of leather and leather mittens was here begun in 1809.
In 1810 Burr sold leather mittens by the dozen lots.
James Burr seems to have been the leading figure in early glove industry, as he created many improvements in the manufacture of leather.
Gloves were only occasionally made of the finer and softer parts of the leather.
In 1825 Elisha Judson took a load of gloves to Boston for sale.
In 1859 the first glove and mitten cutting machines were made at Gloversville.
Since that time improvements in machinery and leather have been constant and glove manufacturing has become one of America's leading industries, with Gloversville as its center.
Silk and woolen glove manufacture are becoming also important industries of Gloversville, as well as of other Mohawk Valley towns.
The highest point in Gloversville is a hill on its western edge rising 160 feet above the Cayadutta, or 940 feet above the sea.
The city of Gloversville lies on the divide (780 feet sea elevation) between the Sacandaga and the Mohawk watersheds.
The waters of the Cayadutta (running into the Mohawk at Fonda) drain the greater part of the city, but the northeastern limits lie on the divide between Cayadutta Creek and Mayfield Creek, which empties into the Sacandaga at Northampton, where Sir William Johnson, in 1760, built Fish House in the shadow of Bald Mountain there rising 1,000 feet above the river.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 120: The City of Gloversville, continued ...
Prior to the Civil War, manufactured leather gloves or mittens were legal tender in Gloversville.
Nearly all trade was by barter and settlement was made by merchants, manufacturers and artisans on January first.
In 1870 the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad was constructed, and in 1875 this road was extended to Northville.
In 1890 Gloversville became a city.
In 1919 Gloversville had 206 factories, with 6,331 primary horsepower and capital of $27,616,000, 6,704 workers receiving $7,559,000 annually, and a yearly manufactured production of $38,913,000. (1920 U. S. Census report.)
The Fulton-Hamilton Counties Fair is annually held at Gloversville.
All pioneers learned the art of tanning deer skins from the Indians, using the deer's brains or hog's brains in the process instead of the soda ash "fat liquor" later in use.
Deer skins were then used for all kinds of clothing, moccasins and mittens, and were especially prized for breeches on account of wearing qualities.
These skins were plentiful, cheap and often a drug on the market.
Ezekiel Case settled in Kingsboro in 1806 and tanned leather and made leather mittens.
In 1807 Tallmadge Edwards, an English leather dresser, settled in Johnstown.
James Burr of Gloversville brought Edwards to this place and the manufacture of leather and leather mittens was here begun in 1809.
In 1810 Burr sold leather mittens by the dozen lots.
James Burr seems to have been the leading figure in early glove industry, as he created many improvements in the manufacture of leather.
Gloves were only occasionally made of the finer and softer parts of the leather.
In 1825 Elisha Judson took a load of gloves to Boston for sale.
In 1859 the first glove and mitten cutting machines were made at Gloversville.
Since that time improvements in machinery and leather have been constant and glove manufacturing has become one of America's leading industries, with Gloversville as its center.
Silk and woolen glove manufacture are becoming also important industries of Gloversville, as well as of other Mohawk Valley towns.
The highest point in Gloversville is a hill on its western edge rising 160 feet above the Cayadutta, or 940 feet above the sea.
The city of Gloversville lies on the divide (780 feet sea elevation) between the Sacandaga and the Mohawk watersheds.
The waters of the Cayadutta (running into the Mohawk at Fonda) drain the greater part of the city, but the northeastern limits lie on the divide between Cayadutta Creek and Mayfield Creek, which empties into the Sacandaga at Northampton, where Sir William Johnson, in 1760, built Fish House in the shadow of Bald Mountain there rising 1,000 feet above the river.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 120: The City of Gloversville, continued ...
Before the glacial period the Sacandaga flowed south into the Mohawk.
Glacial drift deposits choked its channel at Northampton, forcing it to seek a northern channel to the Hudson.
Although Gloversville's southern limits lie less than five miles, in an air line, from the Mohawk River, its northern section is close to the Adirondacks, some of whose southern summits rise from the city.
A wonderful picturesque region of forest, lake and mountain lies immediately north of Gloversville.
Mountain Lake (three miles northeast, at a sea level altitude of 1,577 feet) is the nearest Adirondack Lake.
The road makes a steep rise of 800 feet to the summit on which it lies.
Peaks near Woodworth Lake (four miles northeast) rise to heights of 1,960 and 2,000 feet, or over 1,200 feet above Mayfield Creek.
Westward, the highest summit is Klip Hill, 1,600 feet above the sea, a northward continuation of Nose Hill Ridge or Mayfield Mountain.
The old Canadian trail north to Lake Champlain is now followed by the Sacandaga trail to Northville, which reaches Northville 17 m., Speculator 42 m., and thence to Piseco Lake.
From Northville it runs to Lake George, 53 m. northeast of Gloversville.
The Sacandaga Trail is Gloversville's more important highway feature, forming Main Street, the city's main thoroughfare.
Over this highway and city street passes a great tide of summer and autumn travel to and from the central southern Adirondacks.
Six miles northeast of Gloversville, over the Sacandaga Trail, is the Sacandaga Vly (Vly or Vlaie is Dutch for swamp, swampy stream and sometimes for natural meadow).
This is one of the largest Adirondack marshes.
The road to Northville runs along its western edge.
The Vly will soon be covered by the Sacandaga Lake or storage reservoir, which will form an artificial lake thirty-five miles long, from Northville to Conklingville.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 120: The City of Gloversville, continued ...
Before the glacial period the Sacandaga flowed south into the Mohawk.
Glacial drift deposits choked its channel at Northampton, forcing it to seek a northern channel to the Hudson.
Although Gloversville's southern limits lie less than five miles, in an air line, from the Mohawk River, its northern section is close to the Adirondacks, some of whose southern summits rise from the city.
A wonderful picturesque region of forest, lake and mountain lies immediately north of Gloversville.
Mountain Lake (three miles northeast, at a sea level altitude of 1,577 feet) is the nearest Adirondack Lake.
The road makes a steep rise of 800 feet to the summit on which it lies.
Peaks near Woodworth Lake (four miles northeast) rise to heights of 1,960 and 2,000 feet, or over 1,200 feet above Mayfield Creek.
Westward, the highest summit is Klip Hill, 1,600 feet above the sea, a northward continuation of Nose Hill Ridge or Mayfield Mountain.
The old Canadian trail north to Lake Champlain is now followed by the Sacandaga trail to Northville, which reaches Northville 17 m., Speculator 42 m., and thence to Piseco Lake.
From Northville it runs to Lake George, 53 m. northeast of Gloversville.
The Sacandaga Trail is Gloversville's more important highway feature, forming Main Street, the city's main thoroughfare.
Over this highway and city street passes a great tide of summer and autumn travel to and from the central southern Adirondacks.
Six miles northeast of Gloversville, over the Sacandaga Trail, is the Sacandaga Vly (Vly or Vlaie is Dutch for swamp, swampy stream and sometimes for natural meadow).
This is one of the largest Adirondack marshes.
The road to Northville runs along its western edge.
The Vly will soon be covered by the Sacandaga Lake or storage reservoir, which will form an artificial lake thirty-five miles long, from Northville to Conklingville.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 120: The City of Gloversville, concluded ...
Sacandaga Lake will form the most southerly large lake in the Adirondacks.
Besides being a water storage reservoir, of great economic value, it is bound to become an important southern summer resort region.
The Sacandaga River now lies but eleven miles (airline distance) from the northeastern limits of Gloversville, as well as to the Fulton County village of Northville, located on its upper shores.
Although this new body of water is not in the Mohawk Valley, a considerable part lies in Fulton, one of our six Mohawk Valley counties.
The Auskerada Trail runs northwest from Gloversville, eleven miles, to the Canada (also called Auskerada) Lake region, where the Adirondack peaks separating the Mohawk and Sacandaga watersheds rise to summits of 2,200 feet and over.
Pigeon Mountain, with a sea elevation of 2,780 feet, is the highest peak (eleven miles northwest of Gloversville) on this Mohawk-Sacandaga divide.
The Canada and Garoga Lake region is the most southerly of the Adirondack mountain lake districts.
It is the nearest to and the most accessible from the Old Mohawk Turnpike and is therefore increasing in popularity and population as a summer resort.
Gloversville is indeed a gateway of the Adirondacks.
The vast northern wilderness begins immediately north of the city limits, and the town is truly the metropolis of the great southern central Adirondack region.
Dr. William J. Miller, the eminent geologist, is the author of the "Geological History of New York State" and "The Adirondack Mountains".
Professor Miller was formerly professor of geology at Hamilton College, and now (1924) holds a similar position in Smith College.
He is a generally recognized authority on matters pertaining to the geology of the state of New York and the Adirondack region.
Dr. Miller says that the wildest region of the Adirondacks is that lying immediately north of Gloversville, embraced within the trails which run northward (the Sacandaga Trail) from Gloversville to Lake Pleasant, and from there "around the horn" (as this trip is called in the Mohawk Valley) — from Lake Pleasant to Lake Piseco, and thence down the Piseco Trail through Arietta, and back to Gloversville or over the Garoga Trail south to Fort Plain and Canajoharie.
From the foregoing it can be readily seen that the life of present day Gloversville is interesting and that its civic and industrial features are fraught with a still greater promise of things to come.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 120: The City of Gloversville, concluded ...
Sacandaga Lake will form the most southerly large lake in the Adirondacks.
Besides being a water storage reservoir, of great economic value, it is bound to become an important southern summer resort region.
The Sacandaga River now lies but eleven miles (airline distance) from the northeastern limits of Gloversville, as well as to the Fulton County village of Northville, located on its upper shores.
Although this new body of water is not in the Mohawk Valley, a considerable part lies in Fulton, one of our six Mohawk Valley counties.
The Auskerada Trail runs northwest from Gloversville, eleven miles, to the Canada (also called Auskerada) Lake region, where the Adirondack peaks separating the Mohawk and Sacandaga watersheds rise to summits of 2,200 feet and over.
Pigeon Mountain, with a sea elevation of 2,780 feet, is the highest peak (eleven miles northwest of Gloversville) on this Mohawk-Sacandaga divide.
The Canada and Garoga Lake region is the most southerly of the Adirondack mountain lake districts.
It is the nearest to and the most accessible from the Old Mohawk Turnpike and is therefore increasing in popularity and population as a summer resort.
Gloversville is indeed a gateway of the Adirondacks.
The vast northern wilderness begins immediately north of the city limits, and the town is truly the metropolis of the great southern central Adirondack region.
Dr. William J. Miller, the eminent geologist, is the author of the "Geological History of New York State" and "The Adirondack Mountains".
Professor Miller was formerly professor of geology at Hamilton College, and now (1924) holds a similar position in Smith College.
He is a generally recognized authority on matters pertaining to the geology of the state of New York and the Adirondack region.
Dr. Miller says that the wildest region of the Adirondacks is that lying immediately north of Gloversville, embraced within the trails which run northward (the Sacandaga Trail) from Gloversville to Lake Pleasant, and from there "around the horn" (as this trip is called in the Mohawk Valley) — from Lake Pleasant to Lake Piseco, and thence down the Piseco Trail through Arietta, and back to Gloversville or over the Garoga Trail south to Fort Plain and Canajoharie.
From the foregoing it can be readily seen that the life of present day Gloversville is interesting and that its civic and industrial features are fraught with a still greater promise of things to come.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 121: Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge.
Round Top — Cherry Valley mountains — Canajoharie creek, falls and gorge — The "boiling pot" — Shaper pond, where Brooklyn Bridge stone was quarried — Roads to Sharon Springs, Cherry Valley, Otsego Lake, Cobleskill, Schoharie River and Catskill Mountains — Clinton's road — Beech-Nut Packing Company — Arkell and Smiths — Canajoharie Library James Arkell memorial building — East and west hills in Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge and "Grand Street", the Mohawk Turnpike — First settled by Hendrick Frey in 1689 — Hendrick Schrembling settles in Canajoharie in 1730 — Fort Frey, 1739 — Van Alstyne house built, 1750, favorite meeting place of the Tryon County Committee of Safety — Washington visits Canajoharie August 1, 1783 — Village incorporated in 1829 — Susan B. Anthony, a Canajoharie teacher, 1848-1850 — Sack industry founded by Senator James Arkell in 1859 — Sketch of "One Hundred Years of Canajoharie — 1829-1925", by Harry V. Bush, the Canajoharie historian.
Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge are separate villages but form one community, connected by a bridge over the Mohawk.
Palatine Bridge lies on the north shore, on the New York Central Railroad and the Mohawk turnpike, which forms its main thoroughfare.
Canajoharie is on the south shore, at the mouth of Canajoharie Creek, and on the West Shore Railroad and South Shore highway.
Canajoharie is the terminus of a bus line running through the valley from Little Falls (nineteen miles west) over the Old Mohawk turnpike, and the valley end of the Sharon Springs (eleven miles south) bus line.
Here is a Barge Canal lock and dam, with an eight-foot rise from a water sea level elevation of 286 feet below to 294 feet above the dam.
This is Lock No. 14 and Dam No. 10, Erie Division, Barge Canal, known also as the Canajoharie lock and dam.
This level runs westward over three miles to above Fort Plain.
A terminal dock is located at Canajoharie.
The packing of food products and the manufacture of paper and cotton bags are the chief industries of Canajoharie.
At Canajoharie en route from New York to Buffalo you enter a canned food belt which extends westward to Buffalo, furnishing a great part of the canned vegetables and milk supply of the country.
A food packing establishment at Canajoharie is the second in size in the state.
Its model factories produce a great variety of food products.
This is the Beech-Nut Packing Company, established in 1891, with over 800 workers in 1923.
The Beech-Nut Packing Company began operations here in 1890, under the name of the Imperial Packing Company, which was later changed to its present famous title.
The Beech-Nut factories are open to the public and visitors are invited to inspect America's most hygienic and scientific food products workrooms.
Many of the employes here come daily back and forth from Canajoharie's sister village of Fort Plain, three miles westward in the Beech-Nut buses.
Canajoharie-Palatine Bridge and Fort Plain-Nelliston are sister communities (with a 1920 combined population of 6,076 and a 1925 estimated population of 6,500), between whom there have always existed close business, commercial, social and educational connections, with enough competition to make the relationship interesting.
The Beech-Nut Company also owns and operates Hotel Wagner along modern metropolitan lines.
The officers of the Beech-Nut Packing Company, in 1925, were: Bartlett Arkell, president; Frank E. Barbour, vice-president; J. S. Ellithorp, treasurer; W. C. Arkell, secretary.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 121: Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge.
Round Top — Cherry Valley mountains — Canajoharie creek, falls and gorge — The "boiling pot" — Shaper pond, where Brooklyn Bridge stone was quarried — Roads to Sharon Springs, Cherry Valley, Otsego Lake, Cobleskill, Schoharie River and Catskill Mountains — Clinton's road — Beech-Nut Packing Company — Arkell and Smiths — Canajoharie Library James Arkell memorial building — East and west hills in Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge and "Grand Street", the Mohawk Turnpike — First settled by Hendrick Frey in 1689 — Hendrick Schrembling settles in Canajoharie in 1730 — Fort Frey, 1739 — Van Alstyne house built, 1750, favorite meeting place of the Tryon County Committee of Safety — Washington visits Canajoharie August 1, 1783 — Village incorporated in 1829 — Susan B. Anthony, a Canajoharie teacher, 1848-1850 — Sack industry founded by Senator James Arkell in 1859 — Sketch of "One Hundred Years of Canajoharie — 1829-1925", by Harry V. Bush, the Canajoharie historian.
Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge are separate villages but form one community, connected by a bridge over the Mohawk.
Palatine Bridge lies on the north shore, on the New York Central Railroad and the Mohawk turnpike, which forms its main thoroughfare.
Canajoharie is on the south shore, at the mouth of Canajoharie Creek, and on the West Shore Railroad and South Shore highway.
Canajoharie is the terminus of a bus line running through the valley from Little Falls (nineteen miles west) over the Old Mohawk turnpike, and the valley end of the Sharon Springs (eleven miles south) bus line.
Here is a Barge Canal lock and dam, with an eight-foot rise from a water sea level elevation of 286 feet below to 294 feet above the dam.
This is Lock No. 14 and Dam No. 10, Erie Division, Barge Canal, known also as the Canajoharie lock and dam.
This level runs westward over three miles to above Fort Plain.
A terminal dock is located at Canajoharie.
The packing of food products and the manufacture of paper and cotton bags are the chief industries of Canajoharie.
At Canajoharie en route from New York to Buffalo you enter a canned food belt which extends westward to Buffalo, furnishing a great part of the canned vegetables and milk supply of the country.
A food packing establishment at Canajoharie is the second in size in the state.
Its model factories produce a great variety of food products.
This is the Beech-Nut Packing Company, established in 1891, with over 800 workers in 1923.
The Beech-Nut Packing Company began operations here in 1890, under the name of the Imperial Packing Company, which was later changed to its present famous title.
The Beech-Nut factories are open to the public and visitors are invited to inspect America's most hygienic and scientific food products workrooms.
Many of the employes here come daily back and forth from Canajoharie's sister village of Fort Plain, three miles westward in the Beech-Nut buses.
Canajoharie-Palatine Bridge and Fort Plain-Nelliston are sister communities (with a 1920 combined population of 6,076 and a 1925 estimated population of 6,500), between whom there have always existed close business, commercial, social and educational connections, with enough competition to make the relationship interesting.
The Beech-Nut Company also owns and operates Hotel Wagner along modern metropolitan lines.
The officers of the Beech-Nut Packing Company, in 1925, were: Bartlett Arkell, president; Frank E. Barbour, vice-president; J. S. Ellithorp, treasurer; W. C. Arkell, secretary.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 121: Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge.
Arkell & Smith's paper bag factory was founded by Hon. James Arkell in 1859.
It is one of the finest bag making and printing works in the world.
The village of Canajoharie in 1915 set a fine example in forestry to all the towns along the New York Central main line.
In that year it set out 100,000 saplings to reforest the watershed of its water supply system.
This example has since been followed by many Mohawk River towns.
Both Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge, located in the heart of the Mohawk Valley, are picturesque, progressive American villages of the highest type.
Palatine Bridge residents claim that their half mile of elm-shaded Old Mohawk turnpike, which forms its Grand street, makes their little village the prettiest place in the valley.
Canajoharie is situated mainly on what are known as East Hill and West Hill, divided by the Canajoharie Creek.
It is a handsome, clean, well-ordered town, showing the possibilities of a harmonious combination of beauty and utility in an up-to-date American industrial community and farming center.
Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge have many large and handsome residences with attractive grounds made doubly so by the very sightly location of the town.
Arkell Hall, built of stone by Senator and Mrs. Arkell, stands on East Hill in a setting made beautiful by the skill of the landscape gardener.
The Lipe home, on West Hill, is another large residence in an attractive setting.
The different views of Canajoharie here printed (particularly the aeroplane view) give a fine idea of the picturesque location of Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge.
Round Top
The highest point close to Canajoharie is "Round Top" (800 feet sea elevation and 514 feet above the Mohawk), one mile southwest, on the Seebers Lane road.
The highest Palatine Bridge neighborhood point is one mile northeast, 821 feet sea elevation, and 535 feet above the Mohawk.
Round Top is one of the most sightly elevations along the Mohawk.
The visitor gets a view northward into the Adirondacks, southward to the Cherry Valley Mountains, foothills of the Catskills, as well as eastward and northward along the Mohawk River, which runs north northwest from above Canajoharie to Palatine Church.
A twelve-mile stretch of the river and its fine farmlands is in full view from this lordly height.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 121: Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge.
Arkell & Smith's paper bag factory was founded by Hon. James Arkell in 1859.
It is one of the finest bag making and printing works in the world.
The village of Canajoharie in 1915 set a fine example in forestry to all the towns along the New York Central main line.
In that year it set out 100,000 saplings to reforest the watershed of its water supply system.
This example has since been followed by many Mohawk River towns.
Both Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge, located in the heart of the Mohawk Valley, are picturesque, progressive American villages of the highest type.
Palatine Bridge residents claim that their half mile of elm-shaded Old Mohawk turnpike, which forms its Grand street, makes their little village the prettiest place in the valley.
Canajoharie is situated mainly on what are known as East Hill and West Hill, divided by the Canajoharie Creek.
It is a handsome, clean, well-ordered town, showing the possibilities of a harmonious combination of beauty and utility in an up-to-date American industrial community and farming center.
Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge have many large and handsome residences with attractive grounds made doubly so by the very sightly location of the town.
Arkell Hall, built of stone by Senator and Mrs. Arkell, stands on East Hill in a setting made beautiful by the skill of the landscape gardener.
The Lipe home, on West Hill, is another large residence in an attractive setting.
The different views of Canajoharie here printed (particularly the aeroplane view) give a fine idea of the picturesque location of Canajoharie and Palatine Bridge.
Round Top
The highest point close to Canajoharie is "Round Top" (800 feet sea elevation and 514 feet above the Mohawk), one mile southwest, on the Seebers Lane road.
The highest Palatine Bridge neighborhood point is one mile northeast, 821 feet sea elevation, and 535 feet above the Mohawk.
Round Top is one of the most sightly elevations along the Mohawk.
The visitor gets a view northward into the Adirondacks, southward to the Cherry Valley Mountains, foothills of the Catskills, as well as eastward and northward along the Mohawk River, which runs north northwest from above Canajoharie to Palatine Church.
A twelve-mile stretch of the river and its fine farmlands is in full view from this lordly height.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 121: Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge.
Mohawk Valley South Central Plateau
A broad and fertile upland plateau covers the southern central Mohawk Valley, extending from the hills bordering the west shore of the Schoharie River, westward to the Fall Hill ridge, at its first rise west of the Nowadaga at Indian Castle.
It has a length of about twenty-five miles east and west and varies in width from about twelve miles (in the Canajoharie-Fort Plain-St. Johnsville section), southward to the Cherry Valley Mountains, to about eighteen miles (in the Fonda-Fultonville neighborhood) south to the Schoharie Mountains along the Cobleskill.
A small section of this plateau lies north of the Mohawk from Canajoharie-Palatine Bridge and forms the Stone Arabia section (mainly in the township of Palatine, Montgomery County).
This plateau (on both shores) is reached after a climb up the river hills of from 400 to 500 feet.
It is one of the best dairying, haying and general farming sections of New York State and a great stretch of it is in view from Round Top.
Canajoharie has always been a main market town and trading center for this plateau and is an important milk shipping point for the fine dairying country hereabout.
From the edge of this plateau, southeast of Canajoharie, Mr. Edward Gay painted the picture, "Farm Slopes of the Mohawk."
It was nearby that A. H. Wyant made the studies from which he made his unusual painting showing the forest covered valley and the river of prehistoric days.
This picture appears in the foreword.
A number of farmers from the West have located on this plateau in recent years, a part of the remarkable immigration of Western farmers to the fertile Eastern lands near the great Eastern population centers.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 121: Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge.
Mohawk Valley South Central Plateau
A broad and fertile upland plateau covers the southern central Mohawk Valley, extending from the hills bordering the west shore of the Schoharie River, westward to the Fall Hill ridge, at its first rise west of the Nowadaga at Indian Castle.
It has a length of about twenty-five miles east and west and varies in width from about twelve miles (in the Canajoharie-Fort Plain-St. Johnsville section), southward to the Cherry Valley Mountains, to about eighteen miles (in the Fonda-Fultonville neighborhood) south to the Schoharie Mountains along the Cobleskill.
A small section of this plateau lies north of the Mohawk from Canajoharie-Palatine Bridge and forms the Stone Arabia section (mainly in the township of Palatine, Montgomery County).
This plateau (on both shores) is reached after a climb up the river hills of from 400 to 500 feet.
It is one of the best dairying, haying and general farming sections of New York State and a great stretch of it is in view from Round Top.
Canajoharie has always been a main market town and trading center for this plateau and is an important milk shipping point for the fine dairying country hereabout.
From the edge of this plateau, southeast of Canajoharie, Mr. Edward Gay painted the picture, "Farm Slopes of the Mohawk."
It was nearby that A. H. Wyant made the studies from which he made his unusual painting showing the forest covered valley and the river of prehistoric days.
This picture appears in the foreword.
A number of farmers from the West have located on this plateau in recent years, a part of the remarkable immigration of Western farmers to the fertile Eastern lands near the great Eastern population centers.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 121: Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge.
Roads to Cherry Valley and Otsego Lake and to Sharon Springs and the Schoharie
From Canajoharie roads run southwest, south and southeast to Cherry Valley (nineteen miles), Otsego Lake, Sharon Springs (eleven miles), Cobleskill (twenty-three miles), the Schoharie River and thence through the Catskills to the Hudson River at Catskill.
The mineral waters and baths at Sharon Springs are not surpassed by any of a similar kind in the United States.
In the early and middle nineteenth century this Mohawk Valley upland village was a fashionable watering place.
On clear days, from Sharon Springs and vicinity, one may look eastward far into the Adirondacks.
Canajoharie Library, James Arkell Memorial Building
In 1924 and 1925, the Canajoharie Library James Arkell Memorial Building, was erected by Mr. Bartlett Arkell as a memorial to his father, Senator James Arkell, who was the originator of the present important manufacturing interests of the village.
The handsome building is in the Colonial Dutch style of architecture and stands on the west side of Church Street, about opposite the center of the main Beech-Nut plant.
The grounds about the latter are to be parked and beautified as well as the Library surroundings and the section will form one of the beauty spots of the Mohawk Valley, doubly so because in full view of the New York Central Railroad and the Mohawk Turnpike.
The new Library utilized the stone of the fine old building which stood up to 1924 close to the Beech-Nut plant entrance.
It was in this place that Hon. James Arkell made his first paper bags in 1859.
The James Arkell Memorial Building will contain an art gallery for the exhibition of paintings and drawings of Mohawk Valley subjects.
Up to 1924 this was the first art gallery, present or projected, in the valley.
The Canajoharie Library was first organized in 1884, through the initial efforts of Rev. F. S. Haines, pastor of the Reformed Church of Canajoharie.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 121: Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge.
Roads to Cherry Valley and Otsego Lake and to Sharon Springs and the Schoharie
From Canajoharie roads run southwest, south and southeast to Cherry Valley (nineteen miles), Otsego Lake, Sharon Springs (eleven miles), Cobleskill (twenty-three miles), the Schoharie River and thence through the Catskills to the Hudson River at Catskill.
The mineral waters and baths at Sharon Springs are not surpassed by any of a similar kind in the United States.
In the early and middle nineteenth century this Mohawk Valley upland village was a fashionable watering place.
On clear days, from Sharon Springs and vicinity, one may look eastward far into the Adirondacks.
Canajoharie Library, James Arkell Memorial Building
In 1924 and 1925, the Canajoharie Library James Arkell Memorial Building, was erected by Mr. Bartlett Arkell as a memorial to his father, Senator James Arkell, who was the originator of the present important manufacturing interests of the village.
The handsome building is in the Colonial Dutch style of architecture and stands on the west side of Church Street, about opposite the center of the main Beech-Nut plant.
The grounds about the latter are to be parked and beautified as well as the Library surroundings and the section will form one of the beauty spots of the Mohawk Valley, doubly so because in full view of the New York Central Railroad and the Mohawk Turnpike.
The new Library utilized the stone of the fine old building which stood up to 1924 close to the Beech-Nut plant entrance.
It was in this place that Hon. James Arkell made his first paper bags in 1859.
The James Arkell Memorial Building will contain an art gallery for the exhibition of paintings and drawings of Mohawk Valley subjects.
Up to 1924 this was the first art gallery, present or projected, in the valley.
The Canajoharie Library was first organized in 1884, through the initial efforts of Rev. F. S. Haines, pastor of the Reformed Church of Canajoharie.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 121: Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge.
Clinton's Road
The road to Sharon Springs and Cherry Valley runs along and through the Cherry Valley Mountains.
The road to Otsego Lake branches off at Ames to Sprout Brook and runs to East Springfield and Otsego Lake.
This is one of the earliest valley roads, probably following an original Indian trail.
It was the historic route followed from Canajoharie by the left wing of General Clinton's American army in its invasion of the Seneca country in 1779.
The main body of General Clinton's army followed the road from Seebers Lane and the junction of the Happy Hollow Road due southwest to Salt Springville and East Springfield.
This is Clinton's road or the Continental road.
Cherry Valley Mountains, 2,301 Feet High
From any of the middle Mohawk River uplands, the Cherry Valley hills to the southward are a commanding feature of the landscape.
These peaks and their foothills afford magnificent valley views.
This group of curiously rounded summits has given its name of Cherry Valley hills to the central southern ridge of the Mohawk watershed.
The western peak (about one and one-half miles northeast of Cherry Valley) is 2,185 feet above the sea.
The central peak is 2,301 feet high, and the eastern summit is 2,273 feet, the latter height being located three miles southwest of Sharon Springs.
The highest peak is 2,003 feet above the Mohawk at Canajoharie.
Cherry Valley Mountains were called "Brimstone Hills" in Colonial days because of the sulphurous waters at Sharon Springs.
The Cherry Valley hills form part of the Helderberg Escarpment (as it is known to geologists), which forms the southern divide of the Mohawk Valley, except in the Schoharie River region.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 121: Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge.
Clinton's Road
The road to Sharon Springs and Cherry Valley runs along and through the Cherry Valley Mountains.
The road to Otsego Lake branches off at Ames to Sprout Brook and runs to East Springfield and Otsego Lake.
This is one of the earliest valley roads, probably following an original Indian trail.
It was the historic route followed from Canajoharie by the left wing of General Clinton's American army in its invasion of the Seneca country in 1779.
The main body of General Clinton's army followed the road from Seebers Lane and the junction of the Happy Hollow Road due southwest to Salt Springville and East Springfield.
This is Clinton's road or the Continental road.
Cherry Valley Mountains, 2,301 Feet High
From any of the middle Mohawk River uplands, the Cherry Valley hills to the southward are a commanding feature of the landscape.
These peaks and their foothills afford magnificent valley views.
This group of curiously rounded summits has given its name of Cherry Valley hills to the central southern ridge of the Mohawk watershed.
The western peak (about one and one-half miles northeast of Cherry Valley) is 2,185 feet above the sea.
The central peak is 2,301 feet high, and the eastern summit is 2,273 feet, the latter height being located three miles southwest of Sharon Springs.
The highest peak is 2,003 feet above the Mohawk at Canajoharie.
Cherry Valley Mountains were called "Brimstone Hills" in Colonial days because of the sulphurous waters at Sharon Springs.
The Cherry Valley hills form part of the Helderberg Escarpment (as it is known to geologists), which forms the southern divide of the Mohawk Valley, except in the Schoharie River region.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF THE MOHAWK VALLEY
History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
Chapter 121: Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge.
A Gateway to the Schoharie
Canajoharie forms the western gateway to the Schoharie Valley and the Catskill Mountain road reaching the Hudson, 100 miles distant at Catskill.
The eastern valley gateway to the Schoharie is at Schenectady.
The Canajoharie-Catskill route runs to Sharon Springs, eleven miles; Cobleskill, twenty-three miles; Middleburg, thirty-five miles; Breakabeen, forty-three miles; Prattsville, sixty-two miles; Catskill, ninety-eight miles.
At Cobleskill is a New York State Agricultural College, and important hydraulic cement works, with Howe's Cave a few miles distant.
From Middleburg south the route is through the wild forest mountain Catskill country.
This route to Catskill is ten miles longer than that by way of the Mohawk turnpike, Albany and the Hudson west shore highway.
The Catskill trail meets the Schenectady-Binghamton road at Cobleskill.
In 1834 the Catskill & Canajoharie Railroad was projected and built some distance from Catskill but never completed.
Canajoharie Creek, Falls and Gorge
The Canajoharie Creek rises at the foot (1,680 feet sea elevation) of Shankley Mountain, about two miles northwest of Cherry Valley, and about eleven miles airline distance (west by south) from its outlet into the Mohawk here.
The Tekaharawa, a headwater stream, rises in a picturesque glen, one mile northeast of Cherry Valley, which village lies a fraction of a mile on the Susquehanna side of the Susquehanna-Mohawk divide.
Cherry Valley Creek (one of the headwaters of the Susquehanna) rises three-quarters of a mile southwest of the source of the Tekaharawa (meaning "little cascades", from its small falls in the wild ravine where it rises).
A mile from the source of the Canajoharie is Salt Springville, where is located the only salt spring in the Mohawk Valley.
The east branch of the Canajoharie rises in Sharon Springs and runs as a tiny rivulet past the springs and bath houses.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Chapter 121: Canajoharie — Palatine Bridge.
A Gateway to the Schoharie
Canajoharie forms the western gateway to the Schoharie Valley and the Catskill Mountain road reaching the Hudson, 100 miles distant at Catskill.
The eastern valley gateway to the Schoharie is at Schenectady.
The Canajoharie-Catskill route runs to Sharon Springs, eleven miles; Cobleskill, twenty-three miles; Middleburg, thirty-five miles; Breakabeen, forty-three miles; Prattsville, sixty-two miles; Catskill, ninety-eight miles.
At Cobleskill is a New York State Agricultural College, and important hydraulic cement works, with Howe's Cave a few miles distant.
From Middleburg south the route is through the wild forest mountain Catskill country.
This route to Catskill is ten miles longer than that by way of the Mohawk turnpike, Albany and the Hudson west shore highway.
The Catskill trail meets the Schenectady-Binghamton road at Cobleskill.
In 1834 the Catskill & Canajoharie Railroad was projected and built some distance from Catskill but never completed.
Canajoharie Creek, Falls and Gorge
The Canajoharie Creek rises at the foot (1,680 feet sea elevation) of Shankley Mountain, about two miles northwest of Cherry Valley, and about eleven miles airline distance (west by south) from its outlet into the Mohawk here.
The Tekaharawa, a headwater stream, rises in a picturesque glen, one mile northeast of Cherry Valley, which village lies a fraction of a mile on the Susquehanna side of the Susquehanna-Mohawk divide.
Cherry Valley Creek (one of the headwaters of the Susquehanna) rises three-quarters of a mile southwest of the source of the Tekaharawa (meaning "little cascades", from its small falls in the wild ravine where it rises).
A mile from the source of the Canajoharie is Salt Springville, where is located the only salt spring in the Mohawk Valley.
The east branch of the Canajoharie rises in Sharon Springs and runs as a tiny rivulet past the springs and bath houses.
TO BE CONTINUED ...