• Police Battle Maniac on Smith’s Special

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    Carl Johnson

    In his Nov. 4, 1950 column in the Knickerbocker News, Charles L. Mooney recounted days of long ago – Oct. 21, 1928, to be exact, and in doing so gave us a peek into the working of political campaigns, railroads, police work and the press, back in the days when the Knick Press was…

  • The Albany Country Club

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    Carl Johnson

    The Albany Country Club used to actually be in Albany, for many years, until it was chased out for the purpose of higher education. A  Knickerbocker News, November 4, 1950, article noting that the Albany Country Club was celebrating its 60th anniversary says that the Club received its corporate seal in 1890 as the…

  • Phoenixville Phriday: Free rent and cannons

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    Carl Johnson

    A volume called “Chester County and Its People,” by W.W. Thomson in 1898, relates that during the War of the Rebellion, “At Phoenixville David Reeves, president of the Phoenix Iron Works, gave notice that any of his employes [sic] enlisted in the army they should have the houses they lived in, owned by the…

  • From Albany to China – Stewart Dean

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    Carl Johnson

    Howell’s Bi-Centennial History of Albany tells us that in the mid-1700s, there were a number of sloops and schooners trading between Albany, New York and Boston, and sometimes beyond, but that none had ventured to foreign ports. In 1770, Captain Abraham Bloodgood made the first voyage from Albany to the West Indies carrying a…

  • Van Doren’s Patented Sewing Machine Motor

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    Carl Johnson

    This ad from the Troy Daily Times in 1917 touts the patented factory sewing machine motor of E.I. Van Doren of River Street. “Saves one-third of current because motor stops and starts automatically every time sewing machine does.” Imagine! In an article on the same page (not an uncommon practice in those days for…

  • Careers, 1911

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    Carl Johnson

    We now live in a place that still uses an ancient occupation tax, and as a result its list of occupations includes a number of jobs that don’t exist any more, such as  IBM Key Punch, Paste-Up Artist, Teletypist and Photolithographer. It also lists a number of jobs that technically may still exist but…

  • Wagar’s Confectionery

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    Carl Johnson

    Thumbing (digitally — although thumbs are digits, too, one supposes) through the 1909 Troy City Directory, we ran across this ad for Wagar’s Confectionery, which sounded vaguely familiar despite its way-backness. Turns out there’s a reason. At this time, the name of D. Lester Sharp was attached to Wagar’s Confectionery, “Manufacturer of Absolutely Pure…

  • Schneider’s Blood Purifier

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    Carl Johnson

    You’re a resident of the Collar City in 1909, and you feel like your blood is just a little . . . impure. Perhaps a dose of Schneider’s Blood Purifier would be just the thing! Made up of sarsaparilla, cherry, dandelion, burdock, mandrake, prickly ash, “&c.,” three tablespoons a day probably couldn’t do much…

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