Gibson Brothers in Concert - YouTube

Great sound quality on most of these recordings when heard with quality ears.  Indoor concerts  have much better acoustics.

Safe Passage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ftxop3yGUA&feature=related
Probably their best song to date.  Great sound quality on most of these recordings when heard with quality ears.

Dreams That End Like This
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EtOYoL3E4I&feature=related

The Eastbound Train
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IlXvIokRxw&feature=related

Frozen in Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6XOxfiYzhQ&feature=related

Ophelia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63JaOcHv4Fg&feature=related

Wishing Well performed by the Gibson Brothers @ Camp Jeanne D'Arc in Merrill, NY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCT37WzOg2w&feature=related
A cold, wet weekend and a poorly organized concert.

Arleigh
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iKJ4nplFgE&feature=related

Gibson Brothers WGBGF 2009 06 14 1538 "Ring the Bell" "Jericho" 07:54
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wM-eZGo2SM

Gibson Brothers - Sally Gooden - June 5, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSh0xdN-5I&feature=related

The Gibson Brothers - Help My Brother

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0orc4eF3i40&feature=related

The Gibson Brothers-Clinch Mountain Backstep
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho1Qneoj4Nw&NR=1

The Gibson Brothers-Train 45
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHAEY0YoO1k&NR=1

The Gibson Brothers "Ragtime Annie" Clayton Campbell at Jenny Brook
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUnALbc10sw&feature=related



And many more.  Do a search on YouTube and you'll find many more.

Gibson Brothers New Release due Early 2011

Details of the recording session at their website journal:
http://www.gibsonbrothers.com/journal.html

How to set the table – in 1917

Of late, I have been reading older cookbooks – those from the era of my grandparents and great –grandparents, when households were comprised not only of numerous children but also a servant or two. Census returns indicate that our live-in servants were mostly Irish or Scots-Irish, always female. Servants helped make for full employment in an era which did not have many employment opportunities for the young woman without skills other than domestic . Sometimes they married into the family as a second or third wife following the death of a spouse. Others, having saved their modest wages, moved on to marry and take their places in the community, raising their own families.


I grew up in a 17-room house in Potsdam, which my father inherited from my grandmother. The dining room sported a huge fumed oak sideboard. Nowhere near as elegant and pretty as the early 19th century piece owned by Liberty Knowles and now on display in the Potsdam Public Museum, our sideboard contained our formal dishes and silver, and otherwise served as a serving platform at dinner. Our claw footed oak dining room table could be stretched from a modest round to an elongated oval seating a dozen or more comfortably for holiday dinners.

The early cookbooks are impressive, even when primitive by today’s standards. The recipes were simple, and assumed a fair amount of cooking knowledge. The better ones included explanations of weights and measures, of substitutions and equivalents, and of oven temperatures. Bear in mind that our grandmothers cooked on a wood or coal stove. Maintaining the right temperature was an art form, and watching closely the progress of the item being prepared was absolutely essential.

Having grown up with the old stoves, I would love to have a kitchen big enough today to contain one. The wood stove made the kitchen the best room in the house in any season but summer. The large country kitchen table was the primary food preparation space, as well as a place to sit and share the gossip and news of the day.

Today we would consider the wood stove just too primitive for words, just too time consuming for the modern mother or for the couple holding down one or two jobs each. Consider, then, the labor indications for a large dinner, as set out in The Malone Cook-Book, produced by the Woman’s Aid Society of the First Congregational Church in Malone, NY. A remarkably successful book for its time and now, The Malone Cook-Book went through at least six editions by 1917, including an edition for the blind.

How to set the table – in 1917

"The first requisites for a dinner are fine damask, and bright silver. We cannot all have cut glass and delicate china, but he table linen can always be snowy white, and the silver shining. These, with a center piece of flowers or fruit, will make a table pleasing to the eye.

A cover signifies the place laid at table for each person, and should consist of the number of knives and forks required for the courses, a large spoon for soup, a glass for water, and a butter plate, if butter is served. The knives and forks should always be placed on the right and left of the plates, never across the table. Glasses at the right, kept filled by the waitress.

The dinner napkin is placed at the left of the plate. On the theory that a guest should never be without a plate before him, some use a “place plate” on which is set the oyster and soup plates and which is removed with the soup course. The waitress brings the plate for the next course when she removes the plate of the preceding course. If even with one waitress it is easier to serve many of the courses from the buffet. After the hors d’oeuvre which is at each place when the guests e3nter the room, the soup may be served by the hostess or from the side. At formal dinners, the meats may be carved by the host, or they be carved outside, and passed by the waitress—always served at the left of each person.

Fish is served next accompanied by boiled potatoes cut in round balls, browned, and used to garnish the fish, and cucumbers sliced with French dressing. (Fish should always be cut with a silver knife.) An entrée—sweet breads, croquettes, etc. passed by the waitress.

Then come the relevée, or substantial dishes, roast beef, lamb, mutton, turkey or chicken, etc.

Any and all vegetables are served with beef. Lamb calls for green peas and spinach. Turkey, cranberry sauce, onions, tomatoes, potatoes. Chickens are accompanied by rice and cauliflower. Pork, and roast goose must always be accompanied by fried apples, or apple sauce, sweet potatoes, and turnips. After the roasts at an elaborate dinner, sherbet follow; then game and salad.

Salad can be served with the game or by itself, accompanied by cheese. This latter is often made a course by itself, and served just before the dessert. The present style is to serve each dish by itself. Only one, or at most two vegetables, are served at one course, and many are made a course by themselves, as asparagus, macaroni, etc.

After the salads and cheese come the ices and sweet dishes, bonbons, etc., followed by coffee.

For hot meat courses, entrées, etc., hot plates are used; cold ones for salad, cold meats, and hot puddings, which retain their own heat.

If the knives and forks at first laid are not sufficient, a fresh fork or knife and fork, is set before each person on a fresh plate.

Vegetables are always eaten with a fork, save asparagus, which may be taken in the fingers. Salads, croquettes, etc., cheese and most fruits are eaten with a fork, also ices and many puddings, the knife being used only when absolutely necessary. Spoons are used for preserves, custards, berries, in fact for whatever dishes are too liquid to be managed with a fork.

Before dessert everything is removed from the table except the cloth, which is brused with a napkin, as being more noiseless than a brush or scraper, and dessert spoons, forks, or whatever is to be required placed at each place. The finger bowls come with the fruit.

The present style is to shorten the dinner. Five courses for an informal and seven or eight for a formal are considered quite sufficient. Many substitute an appetizer called a canapé made of anchovies, caviars, etc., for the oysters.

First Course—Hors d’oeuvres

Second Course—Soup

Third Course—Fish or entrées

Fourth Course—The roast with potatoes and one vegetable.

Fifth Course—A punch followed by the game or salad with cheese and bread and butter sandwiches or toasted crackers. Many serve the bird and salad together thus combining a game and salad course.

Sixth Course-Ices or puddings.

Seventh Course—Fruit, bon-bons, etc., with coffee. Coffee is frequently served in the drawing room.

It is very simple to prepare a dinner “a la Russe,” the many dishes do not have to be hot and in perfection at the same minute, and served all together, but each succeeding course can be prepared while the other is being served and eaten. For a “tea party,” or, in city parlance, “high tea” the coffee and tea equipages stand before the hostess. The table may be ornamented with fruit and flowers, but not in the formal fashion of a dinner party. Preserves may stand on the table in glass dishes.

Fried oysters, croquettes, chops and green peas, omelet and cold meats of various kinds may be served by the host. Vegetable and other salads are always welcome, and hot bread and coffee indispensable.

Bouillon often forms a first course. With bouillon a large teaspoon is provided."

Could Today's High School History Students Pass This Examination from 1892?

Sunrise over the Chateaugay River Narrows

The manifestations of weather in the North Country are infinite, and nowhere are they more variable than when near water.  We live in a river valley where it takes some time for the sun to rise above the elevated horizon of mountain and treeline.  This photograph was taken at 6:50 AM on Sunday, Oct 3, 2010. A few minutes later the mist had burned off, and a completely different aspect was presented.

Photo copyright 2010

Bison in the North Country

Beloved spouse and I were wandering around the north-eastern reaches of St. Lawrence County over the weekend, plugged in the wrong town on the GPS, and came to a screeching halt on the Hazen Road in Brushton, midway between Rt 11 & Rt 11B.  Now we've seen plenty of Bison in the North Country before - there are farms in Canton and elsewhere.  Still, they are rare enough that I felt compelled to take the above photograph.  We'll go back for some of that low cholesterol meat when we have a cooler with us. More info from them that raises: Richard and Joyce Hazen, Circle H Ranch, 11 Hazen Road, Brushton, NY (518) 529-7232.  For other growers of grass fed animals, see the Adirondack North Country Association site at:

http://www.adirondack.org/agriculture/farmer-directory/
Photo copyright 2010




.

Gibson Brothers Song Wins Big at International Blue Grass Association

I told you they were good!  The Brothers Leigh and Eric Gibson song "Ring the Bell" won them Song of the Year and Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year awards. Band members Mike Barber on bass, fiddler Clayton Campbell and Joe Walsh on mandolin shared the honors.  Read the whole story at:
http://pressrepublican.com/0100_news/x1760133356/Gibsons-net-Bluegrass-Music-Association-Awards

The Crowner House, Watertown, NY 1879

The Crowner House in Watertown catered to the court house crowd - jurors, witnesses, lawyers.  Its full page advertisement in the Times & Reformer Almanac for 1879 boasted of its new improvements, including water closets of the latest and most improved patterns on every floor, together with The Ladies Sitting Room, complete with running water.  Rooms were $1.00 a day, and meals were 25 cents.  One can't help but wonder what the plumbing was like before the improvements.

Watertown Reunion, March 27, 1879 Paid Advertisement

Times & Reformeer Almanac for 1879

Hotel Point and the Pinehurst Hotel, Joe Indian Pond, Parishville, NY

1908

1935

Some views of Hotel Point and the Pinehurst Hotel at Joe Indian.

This posting inspired by Patty, who just wrote: ".....guess alot of us youngsters are returning back to where we feel the most at peace."

I'm not sure of the date of the bottom pic.  Not even sure where the card is, this being from a digital file. The hotel is gone now, but was still standing in my childhood.  The Pinehurst was one of the vacation venues favored by locals well over a hundred years ago.  Still waters inspire contemplative meditation,  meditation creates peacefulness and this is, perhaps, Joe Indian's primary attraction.

The photo at the top of the blog is also of Joe Indian Pond, taken late in the afternoon from the lawn of the camp where I once lived and now owned by my former next-door neighbor.

Somewhere in the Northern Adirondacks

This photo was probably taken somewhere in the Northern Adirondacks of Clinton or Franklin County, perhaps early 1900's.   Taken with a slow shutter speed with a half way decent camera but with a little light leakage at the edges. Somewhat digitally enhanced in the scanner.

To this I add my plea not to discard old photographs just because you don't recognize the faces or places. For the benefit of those who will care about you a hundred years from now when you are long dead, buried and turned to dust, the photographs of you that remain in an old shoe box somewhere should be labelled as to who, time and place.  Visit your relatives, get them to identify & label relatives long gone, and save these artifacts in an archively stable environment.  If nobody wants your family photo collection, please check out the local historical society and see if they would be interested.

Which reminds me, some of us are looking to put together an exhibit in Potsdam of the photos of Clarence E. Premo.  Clarence was a master photographer, and the yearbook photographer for Clarkson College of Technology, and the Potsdam Normal School / State Teachers College for decades.  Clarence did much more than your usual wedding and baby photographs, although he did many of those.  Clarence's niece and nephew are involved in this project, and we hope that if you have photos taken by Clarence that you will be as well.  More on this in future posts. Please contact me through the blog or at tomperrin240@gmail.com.



Travels in the North Country in 1848

On April 8th, 1848, the Reverend James Dixon, Doctor of Divinity, of Birmingham, England, whose portrait appears above, embarked upon the ship “Acadia” bound for Boston out of Liverpool. Dixon’s purpose was to acquaint the Methodist body in England with the state and progress of their religion in the United States. The account of his travels in America appeared a year later under the title Personal Narrative of A Tour Through A Part of the United States And Canada with Notices of the History and Institutions of Methodism in America. The quotations which appear below are from the first American edition published by Lane & Scott of New York in 1849.

While Dixon’s views on women, diversity and the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon might find little favor in today’s America, it is for his description of his travels in New York’s North Country that I find his account fascinating. Northern New York was then, for the most part, a howling wilderness. Only the periphery: the St. Lawrence River and Lake Champlain received his attention. We’ll have to settle for what we can get.

Dixon had to travel through New England before he could get to our part of the country. A few first impressions are worth noting:

   Nothing can be more odious than the fences of this country; the landscape is perfectly deformed by their appearance. The farmers employ long pieces of  wood, no doubt cut up for the purpose. These are laid lengthwise, crossing each other at the end, and piled one upon another a sufficient height to keep their cattle from going astray. This mode of fence causes the whole country to look like one prodigious wood-yard; and, in the absence of this wood, stone is employed….The villages and towns on our route appeared very pretty; the houses being built of wood, painted white, and the window-blinds green. By these means an air of great cleanliness was secured, and many of these wood buildings rose to magnificence, having a mansion like appearance. I found afterwards that houses thus built of wood are capable of excluding wind and weather, and securing as great a comfort and warmth as the more substantial erections of brick or stone.

……

While visiting Niagara Falls, Dixon was moved to make these comments on the differences between the United States and Canada.

   Every book I had read, and every person with whom I had conversed, after visiting American and Canada, united in their testimony as to the great difference instantly felt on passing the boundary-line; and this change seemed always to be represented in favor of Canada; while any attempt at pointing out the nature of this contrast, its cause and its characteristics, has never, so far as I know, been attempted. The fact is indisputable. It is not a matter of reasoning, of inference, of opinion; it is instantly felt, as much as in going out of a warm room into a cold atmosphere. What is it that produces the change? The preference is, of course, a matter of taste. The American temperament is by some generally preferred, and by others the Canadian.

   Let us look at the case. On the American side, the people are all life, elasticity, Buoyancy, activity; on the Canadian side we have a people who appear subdued, tame, spiritless, as if living much more under the influence of fear than of hope. Again: on the American territory we behold men moving as if they had the idea that their calling was to act, to choose, to govern—at any rate to govern themselves; On the Canada soil we see a race, perhaps more polite than the other but who seem to live under the impression that their vocation is to receive orders, and obey. Then, on the American side, you are placed in the midst of incessant bustle, agitation; the hotels are filled, coaches are in constant movement, railroad trains passing and repassing with their passengers, while men of business are seen pushing their concerns with impassioned ardour.

   On the Canada shore we have comparatively still life; delicate, genteel, formal. Morever, on the American territory, all along the shores of the lakes, the country is being cleared, houses and villages built, works put up, incipient ports opened, and trade begun. On the Canada shore, unbroken forest appears for miles, while the small openings which have been made present themselves to view in a very infantine and feeble state of progress.

.….

   There is another striking difference between the American and the Canadian. In the first-mentioned country, ideas, sentiments, opinions—in fine, knowledge seems to be considered common stock. The people sit with their legs across a chair-back, or place them in some other elevated position, and talk at their ease.

   On the other hand the Canadian people seem to say, “Do you not know that I am a gentleman? Keep your distance sir.” Then, again, the American officer never forgets that he is a citizen, and the citizen does not forget that he is a man; their intercourse is perfectly easy, free, unembarrassed. The one class never assumes an air of superiority; the other never lowers his status, or yields up his consciousness of equality, or his self-respect. On the other hand, the Canadian officer never moves from his standing of assumed dignity, or condescends to become the citizen; he rarely amalgamates with the people; and they, on their part, as seldom think of stepping beyond their line, and claiming equality. These artificial distinctions have a powerful and obvious effect. The manners of the Canadian population, being thus regulated, appear much more in accordance with European notions than their neighbors’. This circumstance, no doubt, causes the one class to be called vulgar, and the other to be praised as polite. The opinion, as we have said, is a matter of taste. They who have a desire to see nature in its genuine tendencies, will prefer the one; they who admire it the most under the restraints of distinctions and fashion, the other. But it would be unjust in me to say, that the more unrestrained population are not polite; for, in truth, I met with nothing but the most perfect politeness from them all.

And now we come at last to the true North Country, beginning at The Thousand Islands.

   Our steamer from Montreal was awaiting our arrival; and after some time we got on board, and were soon off again for fresh scenes and a new destination. We at once got into the current of the St. Lawrence, and found ourselves in themidst of, I should think, the most perfect fairy-scene in the world—The Thousand Islands.

   These islands are so called, not because they have been counted,--a definite

being put for an indefinite number. They extend from the singular union of waters by the Bay of Quinti, and the head of the St. Lawrence, for a space of thirty miles. They are of every size and form, though never attaining any great elevation; and are all covered with trees and shrubs. Our passage lay in the midst of this wonderful group, through which we threaded our course safely, though it needed the most careful pilotage. Some of the islands seemed to occupy a considerable space on the bosom of the flood; but one isolated little thing, just standing in our course, and requiring some tact to avoid, looked exactly like a flower-pot, with one plant growing in its centre, of diminutive size, reaching only the elevation which its scanty soil would nourish. So true is nature to its laws! Had this tiny shrub risen higher, the winds would have soon leveled and sent it floating in the water.

   The day was clear, the sun was bright, the winds soft and genial; could anything more perfectly remind one of Paradise than this scene? No ruined castles, it is true, graced these islands; no rising turrets, covered with ivy, mantled these spots of primitive beauty, no baronial traditions, no deserted halls, no banqueting rooms, once the scene of revelry, of love, and of revenge, were here open to inspection. All was simple, primeval;--nature clothed in her own attire of leafy loveliness. Not a building, not a cottage, was seen. No ascending smoke, no signs of human life, no bleating animals no ploughman’s note, no stroke of the woodsman’s axe, no labours of the spade or hoe, were anywhere visible; silence and repose reigned in these islands,--which, in ancient times, would have been peopled, in the imagination of poets, with nymphs and goddesses,--without one interrupting sound, except the whispers of the wind.

   Nature lay undisturbed in her own soft bed; cradled in the waters; rocked by the elements; and soothed by the rippling stream as it passed along. This simple, primitive state of things, has always been, from the time when God first spoke creation into existence; or, certainly, from the period when, some convulsion breaking off these fragments from the main land, he stretched out his hand to place them in their present setting to show his love of beauty, and teach mankind lessons of grateful admiration.

   Only one inhabitant has been known to dwell on these islands, a sort of freebooter, who made them the headquarters of hisr piracy for some time. He shifted his abode as occasion dictated, in order to avoid detection; and sallying forth upon passers-by, feeble enough to tempt his cupidity, plundered them of their effects, and then hastened to his lurking-places in the islands, to enjoy the spoil. He was at last detected, and is now expiating his offenses in some distant prison, or living at large with the brand of infamy upon his forehead, as the violater of the sanctities of a spot hallowed to innocence, peace, and beauty.

   In the course of the day, we passed down the Rapids, rendered classical by Tom Moore’s celebrated “Canadian Boat Song.” They are perfectly frightful. The descent is considerable, the river narrow, the current impetuous, the rocks turning the stream into foaming and dashing fury, like the waters of the sea on a shelving shore. A perfect knowledge of the channel is necessary to the pilot, a keen eye, a strict and vigilant watchfulness: if any of these should be wanting, or any accident in any way happen; if the ship, from any cause, should refuse to obey the helm, in the smallest degree; destruction would be inevitable. In one place the bend of the river is so abrupt and the angle so acute, that one would suppose the vessel must go headlong against the shore. Such, however, was the skill of our pilot, that at this point we suddenly wheeled round with the current, and passed safely the whole course of the Rapids.

After spending a suitable amount of time viewing the sights of Montreal and Quebec City, Dixon and his party proceeded to Lake Champlain.

   On Thursday, June 22d, the day on which we came up from Quebec, we bade farewell to our dear friends at Montreal, and took a last look at Canada. .… We crossed the St. Lawrence, and soon entered Lake Champlain. A portion of the waters of this lake belong to the British; as usual, just the fag-end, whilst the great body of the lake is owned by the States. The lines of demarcation are marked by a fort, of small dimensions or strength, which might be easily dismantled. This is, unquestionably, the finest lake I had seen. The scenery on its banks is perfectly enchanting; and, unlike Lakes Erie and Ontario, it commands a view of mountain scenery of the most majestic description. This lake is one hundred and thirty-two miles in length, and varies in breadth from the narrow channel above mentioned to nine or ten miles. Many beautiful islands stud the waters, and have a fine effect. At the close of the day we approached a place called Plattsburgh. The scene was the most beautifully romantic which nature can possibly present: a blue sky, deep lofty, stretching its heavenly arch to span the landscape, the sun setting in all its gorgeous glory, the lake smooth as glass, except as disturbed by our motion, wild fowl fluttering about and enjoying the cool evening, the majestic mountains of Vermont looming in the distance, and all the intermediate space filled with cultivated fields and towering forests,--and then the lonely little town of Plattsburgh, touching the fringe of the lake, and presenting the most perfect aspect of rural peace and quiet on which the eye ever gazed. My manliness here was first overcome; I longed and longed to get on shore, to fix my tent, and remain forever. This sentiment was new; I had never before felt any remarkable desire to locate in any place I had seen; but here for a moment I was perfectly overcome. Other affections, of course, soon sprang up, and wafted my soul across the Atlantic, where treasures dearer than even these beauties had their dwelling.

   During this little paroxysm, delirium, or whatever it may be called, my kind companion, Dr. Richey, had retired to his cabin, so that one of my wants could not be relieved,--a vent for exclamations of delight! This was just one of those moments which can never be forgotten, an Eden, a paradisiacal scene, into none can enter with one, and which leaves its picture vividly penciled upon the soul. But how soon things change, and in their reality fade away!

   We left this spot, passed on, the night closed in, the curtain dropped.

All of this helps to understand, in some small part, why I shall forever be a son of The North Country, a citizen of its earth and waters as well as of the Republic, no matter where I shall find myself, and no matter what my circumstances.

Editorial: Documents and Critical Thinking

F. Roger Dunn, 1961

   Many years ago, back in the dark ages of my own history, I took a class at Potsdam State called Documents in American History, then taught by Jack Hennessy. The text for this course was co-edited by the Social Studies Department Chairman, F. Roger Dunn (1902-1964), whose portrait from the 1962 Pioneer Yearbook appears above. A Documentary History of the American People (Ginn, 1951), remains forever ingrained upon the minds of those who took the course. We don’t necessarily remember the documents, but we do remember vividly the lessons the course taught us. Dr. Walter W. Wakefield, his successor as Department Head, said of Professor Dunn, that he “held that no person is educated until he is able to examine critically what he is asked to believe, and base his convictions on that critical evaluation.”

   Professor Dunn and his co-editors expanded on this thought in their introductory essay, “Some Words to the Student,” which I have scanned and appended below. They wrote that you must be able, with respect to any historical document, identify its theme and thesis, the methods by which the theme is developed and the evidence he produces to support his thesis. His opinions must be distinguished from his facts, his emotion from his evidence, and his analogies from his arguments.

   Further, documents must be examined for their credibility: is the writer willing and able to tell the truth?

   As students, we were asked to determine, with respect to any document, whether or not the writer was an observer, how close he was to the event, and for how long was his view. How expert was his knowledge of the subject and did he understand what he was seeing? How long after the event did he write? Did the writer have a personal stake in the matter? Was he a participant in the event? What was his reason for writing and who was his audience? How much truth was sacrificed for literary effect?

   In our day, when truth is routinely sacrificed for political effect, it is more important than ever to be able to examine critically what we see on television and read on the internet. Politicians and the news media have few scruples about misleading the public in the pursuit of their own private interests. Dunn’s immortal lessons provide us with tools which can help us evaluate with confidence the misinformation with which we are daily bombarded.

Potsdam’s truly great professors like Jack Hennessy, Walter Wakefield and Charles Lahey fueled my life-long interest in documentary collection and research. Their influence is present on this blog and elsewhere in many places, and to them I give life-long thanks for the lessons they taught and the challenges they presented.

Some Words to the Student

(click on the image for a larger view)

Source: Avery Craven, Walter Johnson and F. Roger Dunn. A Documentary History of the American People. Boston: Ginn, 1951, xvii-xviii.

Market St., Potsdam, NY 1917

This postcard of Market Street looking East is post marked Sept 29, 1917 and was sent from one Nellie Wakefield to Gary La Pelle of Long Lake, NY.  Nellie writes, in part: "What do you think of this street?  All the lower floors of the blocks are stores."   The banner in the background, probably hung from the Arlington Hotel to 1 Market St. advertises an event being held "to night." 

September Update

Google is now indexing this blog, and I have finally managed to find my password, so I will continue making posts.  If you find this blog, please let me know by posting a comment and following it. 
Thanks,

Tom

A Souvenir of Potsdam 1913-1917

Here's a selection of minature postcards from Potsdam, NY.  While not particularly uncommon photos, they have the advantage, despite being small, of being in virtually perfect condition due to having been stored in their original packaging for almost a hundred years or so. Unfortunately, though, these are half-tone photo-engravings rather than real photos, or even photo-gravures.  Nonetheless, they give us a flavor of what once was. Originally published by H.W. Calkins, who ran a 5-10-25 cent department store at 47 Market St in Potsdam, from 1914 to 1917. The photos are mildly enhanced digitally. Some comments:
District 17 School and the old High School have long since been torn down. I do miss the old Crane Institute. There was always the sound of music coming from its porch and open windows. The old sandstone railroad station was really a neat place when locomotives came through, and then we were reduced to a stinky dinky commuter to Watertown. The RR was Potsdam's major supply and travel link to points south and west when roads were terrible. The steeple on the M.E. church is long gone, but I imagine the one at St. Mary's is still a scary place for a 7-year old, which is how old I was when I was there last. Some of the mill buildings on Fall Island are still there. Has anyone done an architectural study of these, or done some urban archeology on the island? The view from the bridge over the Racquette reminds us that there were buildings on both sides of Water Street, back when there was a Water St. Old Main is still Old Main. It should now be a museum.  Perhaps it could house some of the technological accomplishments of Clarkson University's students and faculty. The Fire Department is much improved, but I don't approve of tearing down old stone buildings in the name of progress. Trinity Church is much prettier on the inside.  Somebody should make a nice book about it before books become totally obsolete. Somehow the picture of St Mary's got posted twice.  When I figure out how to do it, I'll fix that.

Massena Springs

Massena Springs- Is situated on the north shore of the Raquette River, about one mile southeast of Massena village. The St Regis Indians discovered these springs to the government party sent out to survey the ten townships in the summer of 1785. They described them as water coming out of the ground that smelled bad, where the moose, the deer, and the sick Indian came to lick the water. Game of all kinds at an early day were very plentiful in the vicinity of these springs at all seasons of the year, being attracted to the spot, no doubt, on account of the saline qualities of the water. The analysis of the water, showing its constituents, together with other waters, will be found on page 124. The white people began to use the waters of these springs at an early day, and Spafford, in 1813, mentions them as possessing a reputation for the cure of cutaneous complaints, and that invalids came hither from long distances to partake of these waters. In 1822 Capt. John Polley built the first structures for public accommodation. Six years later the old and well known Harrowgate House was erected by Ruel Taylor for Parsons Taylor. Numerous private dwellings soon followed, and the springs were improved by curbing and a pavilion, also hot and cold shower baths erected. In 1848 Benjamin Phillips became proprietor of the springs, and erected what was long known as the United States Hotel, and which was very popular. This was burned in 1871, and on its site was erected the splendid Hatfield House, at a cost of $75,000. Besides this the Harrowgate House is now kept by W. R. Stearns, who also has charge of the waters of the springs. In addition to these houses the Wheeler is kept by Alonzo Riley, a well conducted and popular house. There are two stores at the Springs, and through the growth of the place and of Massena village the two have become substantially one. While the popularity and reputation of these waters has not, perhaps, declined, there has in very recent years been a less number of visitors to the place than formerly a fact which is creditable almost wholly to the strong opposition at various summer resorts, such as the Thousand Islands, in the Adirondacks, and elsewhere. - Gates Curtis. Our County and Its People. A Memorial Record of St. Lawrence County. New York: The Boston History Company, 1894. 19th Century Stereoscopic View. Personal Collection.

Sara Cole, Photographer, Parishville, NY

Beloved spouse and I were recently guests of Sara’s parents where God’s Country is up close and personal. They proudly showed me this great photo of an eagle spreading its wings. This was taken by Sara with a long lens from a canoe, along with some 80 other eagle portraits. Sara’s been shooting birds and people for a some time, not always from a canoe, but always with a camera. Fifty years ago we didn’t have any eagles in this location. Now we have many. Life is good in God’s Country. Photo copyright 2010 by Sara Cole.

Snake Oil On the River

History of the Comstock Patent Medicine Business and Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills

Trade card for Morse’s Indian Root Pills & Comstock’s Dead Shot Worm Pellets, Morristown, St. Lawrence County, NY.  I'm not sure if the lady is holding a monocular or a binocular.  In any event, it's a pretty unusual eyepiece.

For a fascinating history of the Comstock Companies, see Robert B. Shaw, History of the Comstock Patent Medicine Business and Dr. Morse’s Indian Root Pills. http://www.healthynew.com/PatentMedicines/index.html

Warner's Island, St. Lawrence River

This is the front page of a folio sized advertisement for Warner's Safe Remedies, patent medicines. Folded in half, and then again, it made a sheet a little bit larger than your standard 8 1/2" x 11" stationery.  Inside were words and music for "On Thousand Island River", advt's for various Warner patent medicines and the obligatory testimonials. For a lot more info on Warner, his life and medicines, see the link: http://warnerssafeblog.wordpress.com/category/warner-mansion/

Ruth E. Perrin, Postmaster of Potsdam, 1934-1949

Ruth E. Penny, daughter of Captain Alanson C. Penny of the US Life Saving Station No. 72 at Shinnecock, Long Island, graduated from the Scientific Course at The Normal in June, 1897. After a year of teaching in Atlantic Highlands, NJ, she married Thomas Howe Perrin of Potsdam, son of Philander W. Perrin, a prosperous blacksmith who made his home at 74 Elm Street.  Thomas H. Perrin, along with John L. Brown, purchased the drug store business of Dr. H.D. Thatcher, apparently on very favorable terms.  The drug store at 19 Market St. sold everything from varnish to ice cream.  T.H. died in 1921 of diabetes complications.  Ruth continued the drug store with her son Walter Gilbert Perrin, but soon became involved in real estate on her own account, and became heavily invested in local and state politics.  She was friends first with Al Smith, becoming an alternate delegate at the 1928 National Democratic Convention in Houston.  It was probably in Houston that she met Eleanor Roosevelt, and subsequently became a close friend of both Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt.  After Roosevelt became governor of New York, Ruth was a frequent visitor at the Executive Mansion, along with her teen age daughters Ruth Louise and Mary Elizabeth Perrin. Upon FDR's election to the presidency, Ruth became Postmaster at Potsdam, holding the position until shortly before her death in 1949.  Existing correspondence at the Roosevelt Archives at Hyde Park indicate that Ruth acted as a direct link to the White House on federal matters concerning Potsdam's citizens and businesses.  This previously unpublished photograph is one of her wedding pictures, taken in Good Ground (now Hampton Bays) on Long Island, in 1898.  Photo copyright 2010 by Tom Perrin.  For a pending biography of Ruth, we would love to hear of anyone who has any memories, documents or photographs pertaining to her.  The T.H. Perrin & Co. drug store was later sold to B.O. Kinney.  A photo of the storefront is published in The Potsdam Public Museum's book on Potsdam published by Arcadia.

Sylvia Johnson, The Belle of the Raquette, 1872

This is Sylvia Johnson, whose mother Lucy was better known as "Mother Johnson", and famous for her pancakes cooked for fisherman and loggers. Mother Johnson died in 1875, a few years after this portrait of her daughter was drawn.  Mother Johnson ran a hostelry at Raquette Falls from about 1860 with her husband Philander Johnson. Mother Johnson was immoralized by Adirondack Murray in his earliest books on the Adirondacks. Sylvia married Clark Farmer and her daughter was Jennie Morehouse of Indian Lake.

Purely Commercial In Nature

The Gibson Brothers, raised in Ellenburgh Depot, over there in Clinton County, NY. IMHO, the Gibsons are the very best of local boys done good, and it's not just because they are distant cousins of my beloved spouse.  I own all their CD's and look forward to the next.

Potsdam: St. Lawrence Academy, North and South Buildings, surrounding the Presbyterian Church, about 1858.  The Presbyterian Church was persuaded to move across the street to the corner of Elm Street & Lawrence Avenue. The three buildings were then reconfigured to form  the new, in 1867, State Normal & Training School.  The old church became the new auditorium/chapel.  Potsdam's elementary school and high school were also housed in these buildings, until the new practice school, later the Congdon Campus School, was dedicated in 1931.

In the Beginning.......

was a collection of books, photographs and memorabilia of the North Country, wholly unorganized, dimly remembered, yet precious, at least to me. Many are worthy of sharing.  So here they are, a little bit at a time, presented as I dig through the boxes.  All, unless otherwise noted, are in the public domain.  I've made the images low resolution for easy viewing on the web.  One of these days I'll  make higher resolution reproductions available to those that would like a souvenir at modest cost. If you see something you would like, write me at tomperrin240@gmail.com and I'll get back to you rather rapidly (unless I'm on vacation, etc, etc.).