The following was originally published on the New York History Blog. Click the title below to go to that most fabulous blog on all things NY history! To contribute to the blog visit their Rally page. I am hoping to be at the conference!

New York Women’s Suffrage Centennial Conference Planned

By Editorial Staff on August 30, 2016
Night of Terror ProtesterOn Friday, October 7, the New York Cultural Heritage Tourism Network will hold a Women’s Suffrage Centennial Conference at the Holiday Inn in Seneca Falls/Waterloo. 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of women voting legally in New York.

The Conference will take place from 9 am to 4:30 pm. The Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul, who is also serving as Chair of the New York State Women’s Suffrage 100th Anniversary Commemoration Commission, has been invited to make the Keynote presentation.

Several special breakout sessions including:
– Promoting opportunities and locating funding sources
– How your local TPA can help drive business to your site
– How to advocate for women’s suffrage events and programs
Panel discussions about the suffrage movement from 1848 to present

Conference Outline

8 am – Registration, coffee and networking opportunities
9 – Welcome and introductions
9:10 – Welcoming Comments
Menzo Case, CEO, Generations Bank, Seneca Falls, NY
United States Senator Kirstin Gillibrand (invited)
9:30 – Keynote Address – Lt Gov & 2017 New York State Women’s Suffrage Centennial Chair Kathy Hochul (invited)
10:00 – Devin Lander, New York State Historian
Jennifer Lemak, Chief Curator of History, NYS Museum
10:30 – Sally Roesch Wagner, Executive Director Matilda Joslyn Gage Center – Reviewing the past & planning the future
11: – Are you utilizing your Tourism Promotion Agent? Panel discussion
11:50 – Margaret Fuller Update from Beacon, NY – Michael Barnett
Noon – Luncheon (included)
1 pm – Old Songs Concert Series Presentation – “The American Women’s Suffrage Movement in New York State in Song and Story”
1:45 – Breakout sessions – “Beginning Work on a Regional Suffrage Trail”
Katie Macintyre – Generations Bank
3 – Panel Discussion – “Bringing History to the Classroom and Public Programs”
Kim Harvish, Chapman Historical Museum, moderator
Susan Lewis, Women’s and Gender Studies, SUNY New Paltz
Susan Goodier, Women’s and Gender Studies, SUNY Oneonta
Ganondagan State Historic Site representative
Laurel Ullyette, Harriet Tubman Boosters
4 – Review the day for 2017 Women’s Suffrage Centennial planning
4:30 – Conference concludes

Prices are $55 for Network Members and $65 for Non-Members. Click here to sign up.

Special Pre-Conference Tour

On October 6, Auburn and Seneca Falls Historic sites, including the Tubman Home, Seward House Museum, Seneca Falls Historical Society Museum, National Women’s Hall of Fame and Women’s Rights National Historical Park will hold visits and tours. Additional information coming soon.

For questions and more information, email info@nychtn.com or call (315) 521-3985. This conference is produced by the New York Cultural Heritage Tourism Network.

1907 Diary of Malinda Reynolds: Part One

Ther.    Tues. Jan. 1, 1907    Wea. Warm
Annual dinner & meeting at Ch I worked in kitchen
Ma down to meeting
seats sold in --- --- called at ------ Teffts -----most all gone

 Ther.    Wednesday 2          Wea.cold
Mr. S Homidia sick
I called at Cronkites  & Mr Dannings Re sick
I --- to meeting --- St John ---------


 Ther.    Thursday 2            Wea.Cloudy
and rainy at Ch all day
Julia and I  Hate Coffee
I cooked an -------- quilt
send down to office in eve

First diary entries

So begins the arduous task of transposing a diary...

Town of Corinth Historian, Rachel Clothier, contacted me via my Facebook page a couple of weeks ago. She had come across the 1907 diary of one Malinda A.C. Reynolds of Greenwich, NY at a local antiques sale. She said I could borrow it for my blog.

Malinda Reynolds 1907 diary

Diary entries from October 1907

It's a small diary. Smaller than a 3"x5" card when it's closed. The writing is kind of difficult to read because it is small, the ink has started to fade, and there is some of this cross writing as seen above.

I need to do a bit more research in the Gill Room. Hopefully I will have more information in the coming weeks. In the mean time, if anyone has any info on Malinda Reynolds, please leave a comment below, email me (toghistorian@nycap.rr.com) or shoot me a message on Facebook.

 

Where is the NY State Suffrage Centennial?

WARNING: This may well be a bit of a rant, but something I believe NEEDS to be addressed. What are we doing about the upcoming Suffrage Centennial? Anyone? (I hear crickets chirping...) Bueller?

Meme I created. Isn't Inez Milholland fabulous?

So, what is NY doing to commemorate one of the single most important social history movements in our history? Chances are, nothing. If anything, it will be one of those mandates coming down from the governor's office (& I know Mr. Cuomo loves our history & wants to promote it as much as possible- Path Through History anyone?) with no real plan & no budget, leaving municipalities to foot the bill. So, it is up to private citizens, & businesses to step up & say, we want this! Social history is just as important as military history! Women's history belongs to EVERYONE!

My mother & I went to a great event in March 2013 at the Rosendale Theatre near SUNY New Paltz, where I earned my BA in History. It was a kind of play/ living history event called Brimstone, Booze, & the Ballot: Susan B. Anthony vs. Matilda Joslyn Gage & was presented by the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House, The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, & Votes for Women 2020. In the 16 months since that event, I have been expecting a bunch of similar events: events that could be seen as dress rehearsals for the NY State Suffrage Centennial. Unfortunately, I have yet to see that.

Don't get me wrong, there are sites, & organizations catering to the Suffrage Movement, but they are places that do that on a daily basis, like the previously mentioned SBA House, MJG Foundation, as well as Seneca Falls. The Women's Rights National Historical Park just wrapped up their convention commemorating the 166th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention. & I am sure there are others. (Please let me know. I would LOVE to hear about them.) But we need more. We need living social history demonstrations to be as prevalent as Revolutionary & Civil War re-enactments. We need more women & girls involved in re-enacting.

& I need to put my money where my mouth is! I am currently working on a living social history project related to the Suffrage Movement. I am also making my own 1895 bicycling costume! Me who just recently learned how to sew...

1895 Bicycle Costume- Work in Progress

“Brimstone, Booze and the Ballot; Susan B. Anthony vs. Matilda Joslyn Gage” - See more at: http://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2013/03/21/brimstone-booze-and-the-ballot-a-susan-b-anthony-vs-matilda-joslyn-gage/#sthash.PfPlnwPr.dpuf

“Brimstone, Booze and the Ballot; Susan B. Anthony vs. Matilda Joslyn Gage” - See more at: http://newyorkhistoryblog.org/2013/03/21/brimstone-booze-and-the-ballot-a-susan-b-anthony-vs-matilda-joslyn-gage/#sthash.PfPlnwPr.dpuf

What do you say? Anyone interested?

Albany Rural Cemetery - History In Photos: The Presidential Grave

I apologize for the re-blog... I am reading People of Albany: During Albany's Second 200 Years (1800s & 1900s), Albany Rural Cemetery by Peter J. Hess & got to thinking about all of the people buried there. I really need to go visit this cemetery in Menands. Click on the 1st link to see the images that go along with this re-blog from Albany Rural Cemetery - History In Photos blog by Paula Lemire. The 2nd link takes you to the All Over Albany blog with a post by James Greene, Jr. Both posts are from Oct. 17, 2012. 



Albany Rural Cemetery - History In Photos: The Presidential Grave: One of my favorite local sites, All Over Albany, has an article today on what is easily the most famous grave at the Albany Rural Cemetery...

Gravespotting Chester A. Arthur.
The monument marking the resting place of President Arthur was the work of Baltimore sculptor Ephraim Keyser.  Reportedly, the elegant bronze angel and black stone sarcophagus cost $10,000.  The funds were raised by a group of the late President's friends.  It was erected in the Arthur family lot on the South Ridge in 1889, some three years after Arthur's death.
The white marble markers seen behind the monument in the antique photo below belong to members of the Arthur family, including Chester Arther's parents.  His wife's delicate Gothic sarcophagus is hidden by the larger Presidential monument in this photo, but is located just to the rear of it and it will be the subject of an upcoming post here.

In his 1893 history of the Albany Rural Cemetery, Henry P. Phelps wrote about the Arthur gravesite:

We turn now towards one of the most interesting and artistic monuments in the Cemetery, erected to the memory of Chester Alan Arthur, twenty-first president of the United States, born October 5, 1830, died November 18, 1886.  The lot is not a large one, nor is it conspicuous.  It was purchased by the president's father, Rev. William Arthur, and there he and the president's mother, wife, and son are buried.  It was right and best, of course, that Mr. Arthur should sleep among his kindred and his grave was made there before any testimonial was projected.  This is the free, cheerful, almost unasked for contribution of his friends, resident largely in the state of New York.  With few words, with little publicity, and no solicitation, a handsome sum of money was promptly raised, sufficient to pay for the monument and also for a statue in New York City.  The whole proceeding was conducted in the generous, gentlemanly way so much in accordance with the life and manner of the man whom it was sought thus to honor.

Photo Essay: Part 3- On Our Way to the Lake

As time slides along its inexorable path, we humans do not realize the history we may witness, and which we fail to record. The events of today are the history of tomorrow but we do not recognize it until much later.

Thus begins the preface to a very good book called The Champlain Canal: Mules to Tugboats by Captain Fred G. Godfrey. I bought this book at the history fair last fall. The statement is very true from my point of view. I hope this blog, keeping my diary, & introducing you & my daughter to local history are ways of documenting that history that night be lost

 The finale of our Champlain Barge Canal excursion happened in late October. Luckily the weather cooperated on all those Mondays.

Sediment dredged from the Hudson River is placed in these vessels^

The image above is slightly north of Lock 7 in Fort Edward, NY. This is where the Champlain Barge Canal leaves the Hudson River entirely behind on its path to Lake Champlain.

Historic marker at the aqueduct in Fort Edward, NY

The aqueduct in Fort Edward, just north of the Old Fort House, on the opposite side of US Route 4 is really beautiful, even if dilapidated. Further north there is an apartment building that used to house mules for changing out.

Part of the old aqueduct & junction locks in Fort Edward, NY

Panoramic view of lock 8 on the Champlain Barge Canal in Fort Edward*

Fiona took these shots with a panoramic feature on her iPod. She wanted to use them in her photo essay, but we couldn't get a decent print copy.

Panoramic view of Lock 9 on the Champlain Barge Canal in Smith's Basin*

Canal park- Old locks in Fort Ann, NY

The doors of the lock at Lock 10 in Comstock*

Lock 10 is located in Comstock, NY. In the photograph below you can see the red barn and other buildings of the Washington Correctional Facility compound. My father, Iliff W. Dolton, Jr. worked at this NY State medium-security prison for over 20 years.

Washington Correctional Facility as seen from Lock 10*

Lock 12 of the Champlain Barge Canal is in Whitehall, NY & is at the base of Lake Champlain. During the summer months it can be quite busy, but it was pretty quiet with the spent fall foliage. (Did you notice? There is no Lock 11. It was deemed unnecessary & never built.)

NY State & NY Canal Corporation flags fly over Lock 12

Sign for safety at Champlain Barge Canal Lock 12 in Whitehall, NY

By the time we hit the last lock in Whitehall, NY we were a bit silly. Well, I guess we tend to be a bit silly most of the time, especially when we are traveling, & singing in the car.

Fiona caught me acting goofy at Lock 12*

Fiona took a selfie at Lock 12*

Thank you for coming on Fiona & I on our adventure. I hope you plan one soon!


* These photographs were taken by Fiona A. Dolton-Coons on her iPod 5 in October 2013. None of these were used in her final photo essay for JAC.

^This photograph was taken Fiona A. Dolton-Coons on her iPod 5 in October 2013. It was used in her final photo essay for JAC.

*** UPDATE: On March 1, 2014, Fiona was awarded First Place in the Junior American Citizens Photo Essay "Honoring Our Heritage" by the NY State DAR. ***

Photo Essay: Part Two- Reminiscing Lock 6

Fiona & I continued our little Monday adventures around the Champlain Canal, up & down US Route 4. We watched the dredging near our house, just below Lock 6. The sound of the machines groaning through the valley, especially at night. I told her a bit about my life growing up along the Hudson.

Looking south toward Lock 6 from one of the bridges

 I'm not sure if it was this one or the one further north, but during the summer local kids, mostly boys, would jump off the bridge into the canal below. This part of the Hudson is not safe to swim in, especially with the dredging. Also, this part of the canal is lined with large pieces of cut stone. No swimming, or diving is allowed in the canal.

Lock 6 filling up

When my younger sister, Heather, & I were little, our mom & aunt used to bicycle us over to the canal from our house about 1/2 a mile away. One day a barge was going through the lock & we got to see the whole thing. The barge pull in, the water drain out with the barge slowly going down, the doors open, & the barge spill out into the Hudson headed south. One of the crew members threw up apples to us.

Looking north from Lock 6 in Fort Miller, NY

Full lock waiting for the down river arrival of a boat

Safety warnings so people don't fall in the canal

Cleengineering boat going through Champlain Canal Lock 6

Lock 6 has emptied and doors are opening to let out the southbound boat

Looking south from Lock 6- The Point is on the right

 In the image above, just around the corner from where the concrete ends in the upper right, there is a shale ledge called The Point. People used to go out there at night & party. But in the summers of 1985 & 1986, when we were really into INXS, Breathe, & Bryan Adams (sometimes we brought our cassette players), my little sister & I, & sometimes our friends, would go out there & wade into the Hudson. We soon realized that barefoot was a bad idea, so we wore our jelly shoes. Again, not a great idea because of the water pollution, but there is also a nasty current nearby.

Southbound boat is leaving Lock 6

The above is video my daughter, Fiona, shot while working on her photo essay. It shows Lock 6 closing its doors.

Dredging is underway south of Lock 6

Crocker's Reef Guard gate north of Lock 6

 When I was finally able to ride my bike well enough, I was allowed to ride along US Route 4 as far as what we called the "drop gate." It is actually called a guard gate, that helps protect the canal from flooding & snow melt in the spring.

Looking north from the Guard Gate toward Fort Edward

Photo Essay: Part One- Taking a different perspective

Every year the Daughters of the American Revolution offer educational programs & contests. This year I insisted that my daughter, Fiona (12), participate. She groaned, but I told her she could take pictures with her ipod & submit a photo essay for the contest. This got her attention. There is little she likes more (maybe One Direction, Little Mix, & 5 Seconds of Summer) than taking pics with her ipod.

Over the course of 5 separate Mondays she & I drove the length of the Champlain Canal taking photographs of the locks for the Junior American Citizens art contest. Fiona had to take her own photographs, which she did. I took my own & will share some of them here. I am really glad I insisted she do this because we had a lot of fun together, riding in the car, signing One Direction songs, getting "lost" in our search for Lock 1 at Waterford, exploring local history, & just being together.

Fiona at Lock 1- Champlain Canal, Waterford, NY

Lock 2- Champlain Canal between Waterford and Mechanicville

Lock 3- Champlain Canal, Mechanicville, NY

Fiona is king of the world- Lock 4- Champlain Canal, Stillwater, NY

Fiona snapping a pic- Lock 5- Champlain Canal, Schuylerville, NY

Fiona posing- Lock 12- Old Champlain Canal, Greenwich, NY

Trees growing through the masonry at Old Champlain Canal Lock 12

Old Champlain Canal- Lock 12

Historic marker at Lock 6- Champlain Canal, Fort Miller, NY

Fiona watching the doors open for a boat- Lock 6- Champlain Canal, Fort Miller, NY

Fiona & me basking in the September sun at Lock 6- 2013

Surprise! Great rest area along the canal north of Lock 6

All images by Tisha Dolton, Historian September-October 2013

Keeping a diary- 2014 & 1936

Remember when I blogged about diaries & journals last year? (If you don't, I understand. Just click that link I put in 2 sentences ago & it will take you to the post.) Well, I have decided to get back to my diary with the help of my great-grandmother Irene Smith Dolton. I never knew her because she was born around 1880 & died a few years before I came into the world. Reading her diary is like a little glimpse into her life in Ludlowville (Town of Lansing), plus it has sparked conversations with my dad about his family.

But, you may be wondering how Irene is helping me get back on track with my diary. A few years ago, I thought it a great idea to post her diary entries in a blog. I had read another blog (which I can't seem to find now because there are many more out there) about a soldier in WWI. The ancestor was posting daily as if the soldier were writing them now. I thought I could do the same because I have one entire year, 1936, & no more. This would only be a year long commitment. So, now as I post one of Irene's entries every day, I then write in my diary. Hopefully, this will keep me on track for all of 2014 while I visit my great-grandmother in 1936.

Irene Smith Dolton's diary from 1936

If you are interested in reading the 1936 Dairy of Irene Smith Dolton, here is the link for the 1st entry. They are rather short, so have a glance.