The Life of Mordecai Myers

Portrait of Mordecai Myers in uniform, painted ca. 1810 by John Wesley Jarvis. The original painting is in the collections of the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio. 

The life of Mordecai Myers (1776-1871) intersected with the history of Schenectady for the last 23 years of Myers' life. Before coming to Schenectady, Myers had already had a full and interesting life. In his years as a young man in New York City, he was active with the Society of Tammany and the Freemasons, served in the New York Militia, and founded a brokerage and auctioneering firm. He had also been a military hero during the War of 1812. During his service in the War of 1812, me married Charlotte Bailey, who had nursed him to health after he was wounded in battle. The couple went on to have ten children. Myers first took public office in 1828 in the New York State Legislature. He served five terms. In 1836, Myers and his family moved to Kinderhook, New York, where he would serve as the mayor and as vice president of a local bank. In 1848, Myers moved to Schenectady.

Although Myers was already 72 when he moved to Schenectady, he did not slow down. He would serve as the first -- and, to date, only -- Jewish mayor of the city, elected in 1851 as a Democrat and again in 1854 as a Whig. "He was from the start a dedicated official," writes Neil Yetwin, a local educator and historian who has researched Myers' life extensively and who has recently produced the first annotated edition of Myers’ posthumous memoirs, "whose accomplishments ranged from authorizing a physician to vaccinate Schenectady's poorer citizens to persuading New York Central Railroad President Erastus Corning to slow the speeding trains from Albany that were causing safety hazards on Schenectady's main arteries." After Myers' second mayoral term was finished, he ran for Congress, unsuccessfully, in 1860 at the age of 84. Mordecai Myers died in 1871 at the age of 95. In his will, he left a $400 bequest to the city of Schenectady toward purchasing land for a hospital. Myers was buried in Vale Cemetery.

To learn more about the life of Mordecai Myers that spanned nearly a century, join us for a lecture by Neil Yetwin this Saturday, March 29. Details are below.


Major Mordecai Myers: An American-Jewish Hero of the War of 1812 

Presented by Neil Yetwin

Date: Saturday, March 29, 2014

Time: 2:00 p.m.

Location: Schenectady County Historical Society, 32 Washington Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12305

Admission: Free and open to the public. This event is sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities Speakers in the Humanities Program

In addition to speaking, Neil Yetwin will be signing and selling copies of Mordecai Myers’ posthumous memoirs, edited and annotated by Yetwin, entitled “To My Son...”: The Life and War Remembrances of Captain Mordecai Myers, 13th United States Infantry, 1812-1815.

For more information, please contact Librarian Melissa Tacke at 518-374-0263, option 3, or by email at librarian@schenectadyhistorical.org. The Schenectady County Historical Society is wheelchair accessible, with off-street parking behind the building and overflow parking next door at the YWCA.

Schenectady from the Sky: Aerial Photographs

Scores of two-family homes can be seen in this residential aerial view of Schenectady, taken in 1918. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Aerial photographs -- photographs taken from an elevated position -- can be taken from airplanes and helicopters, hot-air balloons and blimps, and even from tall buildings. Aerial photography of cities and towns began in the late 1850s, but did not become widespread until after World War I. Aerial photographs in the collections of the Grems-Doolittle Library depict the city from 1918 through the 1980s. Here are just a few of the aerial photographs from our collections that show Schenectady County from above.

View of Clinton Street, looking west, in 1928. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection.

The village of Scotia and the Mohawk River feature prominently in this 1935 aerial view. The original Great Western Gateway Bridge (center) connected Scotia to Schenectady. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection.

Aerial view of State Street in Schenectady, looking west, in 1952. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection.

Aerial view of the newly-established Coldbrook housing development in Rotterdam, ca. 1950. Image from Larry Hart Collection.

This 1968 view shows Schenectady's riverfront, bounded by a railroad bridge on the left and the old Great Western Gateway bridge on the right. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection.

Veteran's Park (formerly Crescent Park) is seen in this 1981 aerial view of State Street. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Volunteer Opportunities in the Grems-Doolittle Library

Researchers and volunteers at work in the Grems-Doolittle Library's reading room.

Are you interesting in volunteering in our library? Come join us! The Grems-Doolittle Library is currently seeking volunteers to assist with a number of projects, including:

• Data entry and cataloging
• Indexing
• Rehousing collections
• Scanning projects
• Customer service
• Research work (for research guides and bibliographies, finding aids, and blog entries)
• Clerical duties (photocopying, shelving, filing)
• Shelf reading
• Creating inventories

Library volunteers in the stacks in our reading room. 

If you are interested in volunteering, you are encouraged to attend the upcoming Volunteer College informational session to be held this Saturday, March 15, 2014.

Event: Volunteer College: Volunteer Opportunities in the Grems-Doolittle Library

Date: Saturday, March 15, 2014

Time: 10:30 a.m.

Location: Schenectady County Historical Society, 32 Washington Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12305

There is no need to pre-register if you plan to attend. If you cannot attend, but are interested in volunteering, please contact our Librarian/Archivist, Melissa Tacke, by phone at 518-374-0263, option 3, or send an email to librarian@schenectadyhistorical.org.

This informational session is part of an ongoing Volunteer College series of programs open to all who are interested in volunteering for all sites of the Schenectady County Historical Society. Volunteer College sessions are generally held the third Saturday of every month at 10:30 a.m. For more information about the Volunteer College series, contact our Educator/Assistant Curator, Jenna Peterson, by phone at 518-887-5073, ext. 104, or send an email to educator@schenectadyhistorical.org.

Happy Birthday, Schenectady County!

This basic county map depicts Schenectady County today. Image from http://www.nysegov.com.

Today marks the date the Schenectady County was established. On March 7, 1809, Schenectady County split off of Albany County. Albany County was one of the original counties in the colony of New York created in November 1683 by colonial governor Thomas Dongan. The act creating Albany County defined the territory of the county "to containe the Towns of Albany, the Collony Rensselaerwyck, Schonecteda, and all the villages, neighborhoods, and Christian Plantaçons on the east side of Hudson River from Roelef's Creek, and on the west side from Sawyer's Creek (Saugerties) to the Sarraghtoga." Although the boundaries of Albany County changed many times over the next 125 years, Schenectady and the surrounding towns remained part of Albany County. When Schenectady County was created in 1809, it was the last change made to the boundaries of Albany County.

Portion of map of New York Province, 1776, showing Albany County, which at that time included the area that would later become Schenectady County. Image from People of Colonial Albany Live Here site, New York State Museum (https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/index.html)

Portion of 1808 New York State map showing Albany County, one year before Schenectady County split from Albany County. Image from collections of Grems-Doolittle Library.

When Schenectady County was created, it consisted of the city of Schenectady and the towns of Duanesburg, Princetown, and Niskayuna (Niskayuna itself being newly incorporated from Watervliet on the same date). Glenville and Rotterdam would be incorporated from the city of Schenectady several years later, in 1820. The act that created Schenectady County charged the county with its new responsibilities to prepare a court house and jail, record deeds, maintain records of election returns, collect taxes, and to appoint a county clerk and county treasurer. The city of Schenectady was chosen as the county seat. The History of the County of Schenectady, authored by George Rogers Howell and John H. Munsell, listed that in 1809 the total valuation of real and personal estate of the county was $1,841,728.

Portion of 1824 New York State map showing Schenectady County. Image from collections of Grems-Doolittle Library.

Friends and Neighbors: The Sketchbook of Grace Buck

Drawings of Eugenie Des Jardins and Mrs. Mabel T. Buck. Eugenie Des Jardins was a classmate of Grace's who lived nearby on Oakwood Avenue. Mabel T. Buck was Grace's grandmother; she came to live in the home with Grace and her parents in the mid-1930s. Image from Grace Buck Sketchbook, collections of the Grems-Doolittle Library.

The library recently received a compelling sketchbook created by a local young woman, Grace Buck, in the early 1930s, when the artist was 13 and 14 years old. Among the drawings of cartoon characters and film stars from magazines are several pencil drawings of Grace's family members, friends, and neighbors. Grace Buck's sketchbook is interesting not only because it captures the work of a young woman in our area, but because she depicts in her drawings a number of people who lived around her. Images taken from her sketchbook are included here.

Photograph of Grace Buck from 1937 Mont Pleasant High School yearbook. As a young person, Grace was active in the A Capella Choir and the Art Club at Mont Pleasant. Image from the collections of the Grems-Doolittle Library. 

Grace Augusta Buck was born in Schenectady in 1918 to Daisy (Gilbert) and William Buck. She attended Pleasant Valley School, then went on to Mont Pleasant High School, where she graduated in 1937. In the 1937 Mont Pleasant High School yearbook, she is listed as being involved in Art Club and the A Capella Choir. While it is unknown as to whether she continued to draw, she continued to sing for decades, as a soloist and in choirs. After she graduated from high school, Grace began to work for the General Electric Company. She was active in the First Methodist Church, Rotterdam Homeowners Association, the Schenectady Choral Society, Schenectady Floricultural Society, and in alumni activities for Mont Pleasant High School. She married Willard Roy Hunt in 1956; the couple resided at the same home on Flower Road in Rotterdam where Grace grew up. Grace Buck Hunt died in 2012. She is buried at Schenectady Memorial Park in Rotterdam.

Drawings of Virginia and Beatrice Rolfe, daughters of Floyd and Bertha Rolfe, who lived nearby on Lakeview Avenue. Image from Grace Buck Sketchbook, collections of the Grems-Doolittle Library.

Drawing of Grace's mother, Daisy (Gilbert) Buck. Image from Grace Buck Sketchbook, collections of the Grems-Doolittle Library. 

Several of the drawings in the sketchbook, like this image, depict actresses and models that Grace had drawn from photographs. Image from Grace Buck Sketchbook, collections of the Grems-Doolittle Library. 

"A Street With a Past:" Images of Broadway

Aerial view showing a portion of Broadway near the railroad tracks. The large white building was the Schenectady Paint and Varnish Company. Image from Grems-Doolittle library Photograph Collection. 

Present-day Broadway begins just north of Union Street and extends to the Five Corners intersection in the town of Rotterdam. The street was originally known as Maiden Lane, before being renamed Centre/Center Street during the 1850s and finally named Broadway. In 1930, the different parts of Broadway were known by three different names: it was North Center Street from the short stretch of road between Warren Street and Pine Street down to Union Street, South Center Street from south of Union Street to State Street, and Broadway south of State Street. Industries lined up along Broadway, as did businesses and residences.

1914 image of Broadway looking north from the corner of Edison Avenue. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

The Broadway streetcar, 1903. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

European settlers lived along what is now Broadway during the community's earliest settlement; some of the people killed in the Schenectady Massacre of 1690 lived near the intersection of present-day Broadway and State Street. By the mid-nineteenth century, Broadway both north and south of State Street served as a busy commercial district as well as a residential area, and activity intensified as Schenectady's downtown developed through the turn of the 20th century as the General Electric Company drew thousands of people to Schenectady. Through the early decades of the 20th century, immigrants from Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Italy as well as African-Americans coming to Schenectady from the southern states settled along Broadway near the G.E. plant. Past the railroad underpass, the community of Bellevue developed. Included here are just a few images from days gone by from Broadway, particularly south of State Street.

This 1956 photograph of Broadway between Millard and Hamilton Streets shows buildings that were demolished as part of an urban renewal project in the late 1950s. The second building from the right was Detroy's Chicken Shack, a former jazz landmark. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

The illuminated window display at Star Furniture, 115 South Centre Street, in 1933. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Broadway looking south at Campbell Avenue in Bellevue. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

1895 image of businesses at 334 South Centre Street. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Broadway just south of State Street, looking south. This photograph was taken in 1966. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Undated photograph of the public market bounded by Broadway, Hamilton Street, and Van Guysling Avenue. The public market space was established in the mid-1910s. The large white building at left is the Schenectady County Coal Company. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

Blacksmith shop of Julius Zemke at 402 Broadway in 1918. Image from Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection. 

"If This Paper Trembles When You Read It:" A Mysterious Love Letter

Incomplete love letter written by unknown woman, ca. 1790 (M-Letters-4).  Image from Mabee Family Papers, Grems-Doolittle Library. 

There are very few love letters in the collections of our library; one of the few in our collections is a very interesting one from the Mabee Family Papers. It is not clear whether this letter was ever sent; it may possibly be an incomplete draft. We do not know the identities of the letter writer or the intended recipient. This letter was written from a woman to a man, and may have been written in the late 1700s (a clue given by the use of the long s). The letter includes a rare glimpse into how the woman regards herself, saying she is neither a "tawdy gay thing" useful only for making bone lace nor "bed [lain] old," but, rather, what the world calls "a good agreeable woman."

The woman who wrote the letter was very frank in expressing her desire for her beloved, telling him that his form "strikes the eyes of your beholders with ideas more moving and forcible than ever were inspired by music, painting, or eloquence." Having not heard from the man for some time, she reaches out to him overcome with emotion and pleading for him to reply. "Pray, Sir, speak peace to a troubled heart," she writes. "Be pleased to excuse my blushes, for if this paper trembles when you read it, it then best expresses its author." In closing, she reveals "at this rate I am panting" and hopes to hear from him, "otherwise I am inevitably lost."

The original letter is fully transcribed below, with the line breaks, punctuation, and underlining of the original maintained.


Sir
it is now along time as I account it Since you and I have had any
mututal Converse by letters or any other way. which to me is a great
uneasyness but possybell you might not no where I am for to direct
any letter or wrighting and on that account I Shall not insist
on your infringment of frind Ship. Sir I formerly had avery
good Opinion of my Self but it is now withdrawn and plased on
you for whom I am not ashamed to declare and I am not without
hopes be Caus I am not like the tawdy gay thing that are fit only
to make bone Lace I am nither bed lani old nor yet yong and
Childish, but as the world Says a good agreable woman
pray Sir speak peace to a troubled heart. troubled only for you
be pleas'd to Ex Cuse my blushes for if this paper trembles when
you read it. it then best expresses its author for a Smile Set on
your lips prefaces your expressions before you utter them and
your aspect prevented you all you Can say tho you have an infinant
deal of wit is but a repitition of what is expressed by your form
which Strikes the eyes of your beholders with ideas more moveing
and forcable than ever were inspird by musick painting or eloquince
at this Rate I am panting who expeels Som Sivil thing
in retirn otherwise I am inevitably lost