Iroquois Pulp & Paper

I tend to write these blog posts by the seat of my pants. I rarely have an idea of what I am going to write about before I come to work on a Thursday evening. That's probably why some posts are awesome & some are mediocre at best.

Anyway, as I began searching through the beautiful clutter that is this historians office, without a clue what tidbit would present itself to me, I came across the ephemera from the bicentennial, sesquicentennial, and centennial celebrations. As I was carefully thumbing though the items, I found myself leafing through the Village of Greenwich Centennial Program from Summer 1809. On the back cover, I spotted the most amazing image. It took me a moment to realize, truly see what I was staring at.

The image of the Iroquois Pulp and Paper Co. in Thomson startled me. The mill is laid out along the Hudson River. Northumberland is in the foreground siting along the Saratoga County side of the river. When you look closely, you can see the Champlain canal and the island it created. Behind the factory, are the mill houses, and just to the right of the water tower is the large white cupola of the big Victorian. But what is most shocking to me is the openness. The miles and miles of treeless fields. Now it is very wooded and overgrown.

Iroquois Pulp & Paper, manufacturers of hanging papers c.1809

I wonder if I could get a photograph now from a similar vantage point, maybe on Stark's Knob?

Happy Earth Day STOP!

Did you know that Greenwich High School has a student organization specifically devoted to recycling? I did not. This is their 40th anniversary!

According to an article on the school website Student To Oppose Pollution (STOP) was started in April 1972 by Linda Austin. "The club began as a monthly recycling campaign which collected 11 tons of paper, nine and one-half barrels of flattened cans and 23 barrels of crushed class in its’ first month of operation.  Linda continued as advisor of S.T.O.P. until her retirement in 2001."*

The first Earth Day was celebrated on March 21, 1970 in San Francisco & a few other cities. It wasn't until 1990 when it became a global phenomenon under the direction of Denis Hayes & the Earth Day Network http://www.earthday.org/.

Ron Cobb's 1969 Ecology Symbol^

Happy Earth Day Anniversary to the students and educators who have made S.T.O.P. an important part of the Greenwich CSD & the entire Greenwich community. Celebrate by bringing your recyclables to Greenwich High School on Saturday, April 21, 2012. For more info see the link below... or check out our Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/TownOfGreenwichNy

For information on Roadside Clean-up this weekend in Greenwich, Easton & Argyle, pick up a copy of today's Greenwich Journal and Salem Press.


* http://www.greenwichcsd.org/hswebsite/news.html accessed 4/19/2012
^ This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Attribution: WiscMel at en.wikipedia http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ecology_symbol.png accessed 4/19/2012

Easter postcards (& 'Like' us on Facebook!)

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter. Here are the Easter postcards from Mary Moriarty's collection. I especially like the one with the Easter Bunny riding an egg carriage with another bunny & a chicken pulling like stagecoach horses!

sent to Miss Nellie Moriarty 30 March 1907

sent to Miss Mame A Moriety 12 April 1906

sent to Mary Moriarty 30 March 1907

address side of the postcard shown above

sent to Master Paul Moriarty 30 March 1907

another 1907 postcard for Mary from NYC

from Madeline to Mary in 1907

another card from the same hand as #3 above

&... I have finally gotten around to creating a Facebook page for Town of Greenwich History. Here is the link https://www.facebook.com/TownOfGreenwichNy. Come check it out. I'll add local history events to the Facebook page as I find out about them too!

Revisiting the Suffrage Wagon

In my blog post of July 14, 2011 entitled "Climb Aboard the Suffrage Wagon!" I introduced you to Edna Buckman Kearns and her suffrage wagon. Edna's granddaughter Marguerite has been fighting to get the suffrage wagon on permanent exhibit at the New York State Museum in Albany. That fight is still going strong...

BUT (You knew there was a but, right?)

The suffrage wagon is on display RIGHT NOW! Through May, the suffrage wagon is part of an exhibition at the State Capitol in the Hall of Governors title "From Seneca Falls to the Supreme Court: New York's Women Leading the Way."

For more information, check out the Suffrage Wagon News Channel http://suffragewagon.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/suffrage-wagon-in-exhibit-from-seneca-falls-to-the-supreme-court/

& the press release from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office http://www.oldsite.suffragewagon.org/CuomoRELEASE.pdf

Hopefully I will get to go in the next few days... I'm most looking forward to seeing The Lily signed by Amelia Bloomer!