|
.
|
.
|
|
|
MY THOUGHTS It is always a bad thing when I get thinking, you never know what I'm going to come up with. And I got to thinking about this town that we live in, Duanesburg. This portion of land was originally given to Anthony Duane by the king of England. Anthony's son James who was raised by the Livingstons after his mother died acquired it from his father. Now I guess I am trying to make a point here, that James Duane was English. James also acquired other lands nearby either by trading or by purchase. And he called the place Duanesburgh. Now we know that in 1890 the US board on Geographic Names eliminated the ‘h’ from all cities and towns having names ending in ‘burgh’. Now it appears... Click Here For More
It happened during the Revolutionary War at a time known as "the burning of the valley." As you remember, the British had failed to trisect the area in order to bring a quick end to the war. They then resorted to "border raids." During this period British Tories and their Indian allies would come down out of Canada and burn crops in the fields. The Tories would also burn barns and houses as well as killing livestock and settlers including women and children. The place this happened was Scotch Church, the Scotch church located about halfway between Pattersonville and Mariaville - the Scotch church where the houses on the south side of the road are in Schenectady County, Town of Duanesburg, and the houses on the north side of the road are in Montgomery County,... Click Here For More
Here it is election time and it brings back memories from the 1930’s and 1940’s when the election poll was held in the Duanesburg Dist. #5 School, Route 7 on what is now the parking lot of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. Every election night we would drive down to pick up my Grandmother Mary McClaine Larson – she was one of the inspectors and sat at a long table with three other ladies. They checked in the voters and had them sign a large book before they went into the voting machine booth to cast their ballots. Grandma liked to reminisce about the old building. She attended this school as an older child because they had a better teacher than the one in her own Weaver School Dist. # 19. It must have... Click Here For More As an old railroad employee and working with steam power it was sad to see the decline of railroad passenger service all across the country especially on the D&H Albany to Binghamton run. Only a handful of people used the train each day. I had traveled from Oneonta to Albany and back every weekend from the fall of 1941 until the spring of 1942 while going to Albany Business College. I had a pass as a dependent of my grandfather Jacob Lauer, an engineer on the railroad. After I was married to Frances Fidler on August 16, 1947 we would use our free pass privilege to go by train to many states. The D&H management announced in September of 1962 due to declining ridership and financial losses the two daily trains between Albany and Binghamton would be discontinued. ... Click Here For MoreTHE LITTLE RED CABOOSE Trains, from my earliest recollections I have seen and been around trains from being in a railroad family. As many children were I loved to see the engine and caboose go by and wave at the engineer and conductor. When visiting Grandfather Lauer in the early 1930’s sometimes he would take me to the D&H yard on his day off and let me go into a caboose and I could imagine I was in a moving train watching out the window. Later on after we moved to Oneonta and I lived with my mother and grandparents I would ride my bike to Fonda Avenue to watch the trains and also I would ride to the end of River Street and look over the lower yard where trains were being made up and the... Click Here For More |
||
|
.
|
.
|