Schenectady County Historical Society Volume 50 NumberNewsletter 5-6 May-June 2007 32 Washington Avenue, Schenectady, New York 12305 (518) 374-0263 Web site: http://www.schist.org • Editor email: [email protected] FAX: (518) 688-2825 Librarian email: [email protected] • Curator email: [email protected] General William North (1755–1836) Portrait by Charles Willson Peale – 1785 Owned by Detroit Institute of Art Gift of Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Photograph © 1986 - The Detroit Institute of Art See profile of General North by David Vincent, on pages 6 & 7 BOARD OF Letter from the President TRUSTEES This is an expanded issue whose extra four pages are needed just to thank the EDWIN D. REILLY, JR. hundreds of you who joined the Society or renewed your membership for another year. PRESIDENT When we did this piecemeal, some each issue, the list used to end “Without You We Are CALVIN WELCH Nothing!” And this is still so very true. VICE PRESIDENT This is also the issue in which we note the changes in staff and among our Board RICHARD CLOWE of Trustees. At a farewell luncheon on March 15, we said goodbye to long-time librar- TREASURER ian Ginny Bolen. But she won’t be far away, having accepted a full-time position at that ANNEKE BULL fabulous new Clifton Park-Half Moon Library on Moe Road, just a bit south of Route 146. ASSISTANT TREASURER And then, to balance this private to public transition, we welcome Katherine Chansky, CYNTHIA SEACORD most recently a public librarian at the Crandall Library in Glens Falls, who began work SECRETARY as Grems-Doolittle Librarian – Archivist on April 2. See her profile below, or better yet, STEPHANIE ALBERS stop in and meet the graceful person who has come to serve you. Her arrival enables our ANN ARONSON proud announcement that we now operate full-time, nine to five, Monday through Friday, EARL BRINKMAN with extra hours on Saturday, 10 to 2, to be staffed by volunteers and summer interns. We ANN COGGESHALL consider this a significant milestone—we’ll be buzzing, but no more buzzer! NANCY EDMONDS Of our 24 Trustees, three were elected at the Annual Meeting of April 14 and JIM EIGNOR two were named by the Board to fill vacancies during the fiscal year. Their profiles are FRANK GILMORE on the facing page, and we welcome all of them. Last issue, we noted with great sadness MERRITT GLENNON ANN KARL the reason for one vacancy, namely, the death of Larry Rainey. Dick Whalen and Gary GAIL KEHN Hermanson resigned during the year, and we will miss them. Chris Hunter, archivist at the CAROL LEWIS Schenectady Museum, chose not to seek another three-year term, but we are pleased that MARY LIEBERS he will remain on our library committee. Similarly, Stan Lee, who did so much to get our KIM MABEE Mabee Farm Historic Site up and running, chose to leave the Board but will still be active ELSIE MADDAUS as a Walkabout Volunteer. To all of you, on behalf of our membership, thank you for your IRMA MASTREAN VAUGHN LOUISE NEVIN service and dedication to this venerable Society. HARRY STEVEN –Ed ROBERT SULLIVAN FRANK TAORMINA Our New Librarian SALLY VAN SCHAICK Katherine Philip Chansky grew up in Manhattan, attended Smith College, graduated with a degree STAFF in history, and took a first job in Boston. It was KATHERINE P. CHANSKY another job that brought her to the Capital District, LIBRARIAN first as a paralegal for an Albany law firm, and KATHRYN WELLER later at Skidmore College as a counselor and CURATOR library assistant. Her job at Skidmore’s Scribner PAT BARROT Library gave her the opportunity to learn archives MABEE FARM SITE MANAGER management and gain experience caring for a rare NICOLETTE SITTERLY book collection. She then went back to school full OFFICE MANAGER time and earned her Masters in Library Science PAUL GONSOWSKI from the University at Albany in 2000. Katherine CUSTODIAN has been a reference librarian part time at Saratoga NEWSLETTER EDITORS: Springs Public Library and at the Crandall Public ANN ARONSON Library in Glens Falls. Over the past six years, she RUTH BERGERON coordinated the Writers Series at Crandall. She has also worked as a consultant to arrange and catalog diverse manuscript collections: the HOURS Skidmore College Department of Nursing archives, a map collection and local history MUSEUM collections at Crandall Library, the records of the Washington County Historian’s Office, & LIBRARY and a Civil War documents collection at The New York State Museum. When she isn’t MONDAY-FRIDAY 9-5 reading about local history or continuing her research on her own family history, she is SATURDAY 10-2 either out walking or driving around Schenectady County, getting acquainted with the area. She can be found on weekends working on her historic Greenfield Center home or working MABEE FARM at the Philip family apple orchard in Columbia County. Katherine, whose daughter Allison TUESDAY-SATURDAY 10-4 attends Skidmore College, lives in Greenfield Center with her husband Jim, a Skidmore administrator, her teenage son Isaac, and two spoiled cats. 2 New SCHS Trustees Ann Aronson, a native of Albany, is a graduate of station in Rensselaer, and is currently working on Boston College with a Bachelor of Science degree the Stockade Harbour project, a new waterfront in Nursing. Her nursing practice includes Public community along East Front Street in Schenectady. Health, Public School nurse and Camp nurse. She After completion of two BA degrees from Cornell, owned and operated the Jiminy Cricket Nursery one in Arts and Science and one in architecture, Frank School in Scotia for 12 years before going to work earned the degree of Master of Urban Design from for the Girl Scouts for 20 years as both a staff member the City University of New York. He is currently a and a volunteer. Ann is a professional photographer member of the Boards of Vale Cemetery, and the extensively published in Schenectady Magazine Downtown Schenectady BID. Mr. Gilmore resides and American Photo. She also teaches workshops in Schenectady’s Stockade area.. for the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation in a program entitled “Becoming an Outdoors Merritt Glennon is a native of Schenectady County. Woman in New York State.” She volunteers at the He is a graduate of SUNY New Paltz with a degree SCHS library cataloging photographs as well as co- in History. He retired in 2001 after 33 years of editing the SCHS Newsletter. Her hobbies include service with the New York State Office of Mental kayaking on local rivers and lakes and skiing. She Hygiene and the Office of Mental Retardation and lives in Scotia, has two grown daughters and two Development Disabilities. His primary areas of grandchildren. responsibility were in revenue development, program development, documentation, and training. He has Jim Eignor is a triple graduate of Union College. been the President of the Altamont Free Library, There, he earned a BS in Civil Engineering with a member of the New York State Council on the subsequent Masters degrees in Engineering and Arts Decentralization Committee, President of the Computer Science. He has also held a professional Guilderland Soccer Club, and a PTA unit president. engineer’s license in a number of states including He has been volunteering at the Mabee Farm since New York. Early in his career he designed bridges for 2002 and succeeded co-chairs Kim Mabee and John the New York State Department of Transportation. Van Schaick as chair of the Mabee Farm Committee Subsequently he worked for GE as a design engineer last November. He and his wife Patricia, who have for power plants and power plant equipment, three daughters, live in the Town of Guilderland. retiring at the end of 2002. He has been and will continue to be a member of the Society’s Building Harry M. Steven, a native of Schenectady, is a and Grounds Committee, and as an engineer he is graduate of Clarkson University and Rensselaer interested in following the progress of the Franchere Polytechnic Institute. He began his employment Educational Center. His hobbies include gardening with GE at the General Engineering Laboratory and photography, and he has put the latter skill to and concluded it at the Knolls Atomic Laboratory good use on behalf of Grems-Doolittle library where he assisted with the design and production of projects. Jim and his wife Ann, also a volunteer at nuclear power reactors for the Navy. During World our library, live in Scotia. War II he served with the US Marine Corps as a Naval Aviator flight instructor. Since retirement in Frank Gilmore is a principal in the Schenectady 1986, Harry has done volunteer work for a number architectural firm of Stracher, Roth and Gilmore of service organizations such as the American Red whose design projects have won many awards in Cross, Habitat for Humanity, the Hall of History, the areas of urban design, historic preservation, and the ALCO Historical Photo Library. He has adaptive re-use of existing structures, senior compiled genealogies of both his Scottish paternal housing, and medical facilities. He has been the ancestors and his German maternal ancestors. He is design architect for a number of projects in the also an avid skier and bicyclist. Harry and his wife Capital District including Proctor’s Theatre, the Sybil, who have three grown children, have lived in new terminal at Albany Airport, the new train Niskayuna since 1950. 3 At the SCHS the exhibit entitled Painting Schenectady: McIlworth of Scottish descent worked between Samuel Sexton and His Works continues through July. 1758 and 1769 in the Province of New York and There is a charge of $4 for adults.