September 25, 1909 - Fire Parade

100 Years Ago: From The Rensselaer Eagle [NY 41 Rensselaer 93-32173].

Rensselaer did not host a Hudson-Fulton celebration in 1909, as the state did not come through with promised funds. Instead, there was a big parade of all the fire companies.

FIREMEN AND POLICEMEN ON PARADE TO-DAY
...
For the first time since the new fire apparatus was received last winter the citizens of Rensselaer will have the opportunity to view the department as a whole. Such an opportunity has not been given for the reason that when the apparatus did reach Rensselaer cold weather was at hand and it was not feasible to have a parade.

But this afternoon the citizens are promised a treat. The firemen, in their neat, well fitting uniform, and the policemen in their best clothes will march about a route that takes the parade past every one of the fire houses in the city. ...

I couldn't resist adding this notice of bids for the 1909 fire department:

Sept. 6, 1909 - Mr. John Salt, City Clerk: In answer to bids for supplying fire department is as follows: No. 2 white oats, 68 1-2c per bushel; Timothy hay, $19 per ton; loose timothy hay, $19 per ton; oat straw, $17 per ton. Respectfully yours, Peter J. Mahan, Rensselaer, N. Y.

Sept. 13, 1909 - To the Honorable Board of Fire Commissioners, Gentlemen: We, the undersigned will furnish by your order or order from the City Clerk to the fire houses to the amount of 400 bushels of oats, at 75¢ per bushel; 10 tons more or less of baled hay, $20 per ton; 10 tons more or less of loose hay, $20; 10 tons more or less oat straw, $17 per ton. Yours truly, Waugh & Berry.

Com. M. Murphy moved that bids for feed department be rejected on the ground that same are excessive. Carried.

Photo: Haying scene, St. James (Long Island)
Frederick Ruther, 1909, www.hayinart.org

Lewis Wickes Hine also took wonderful photos of haying in New York and New England, but they were dated simply 1907-1937, too broad a range for me to use. See them on Strip 10 and Strip 12 in the collection of the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.

June 19, 1909 - Hudson-Fulton Celebration

(Almost) 100 Years Ago: From The Rensselaer Eagle [NY 41 Rensselaer 93-32173].

I'm skipping ahead one week to post an article about last century's Hudson-Fulton celebration, in honor of River Day tomorrow.

LOCAL CELEBRATION WILL TAKE PLACE JUST THE SAME

FACT THAT THE CITY WILL GET NONE OF THE APPROPRIATION IS DEPLORED

Promised at Least $5,000 When the Local Legislators Consented to Aiding the Project in the Legislature

The fact that the up-State commissioners of the Hudson-Fulton celebration commission saw fit, after a promise had been duly made to cut out Rensselaer and not give it the $5,000 appropriation that was promised, when Rensselaer had the whip hand and could have smashed pretty much all of the scheme is to be deplored. But then there is another day coming and that's another story.

WILL HAVE CELEBRATION

Notwithstanding that Rensselaer was "done" good and hard it will still have a celebration. The Fire Board some time ago probably foresaw that the city was likely to get left while the bigger fish were scrambling for bait and they inserted an item of $250 to pay for the music and other expenses of an inspection of the fire department. This will take place just as it has been arranged and as far as the local people are concerned they do not care whether the rest of the Hudson-Fulton celebration takes place or not.

TO DEDICATE MONUMENT

Another feature will be the dedication of the handsome monument it is proposed to build in Memorial Park at Third avenue and Washington streets and which promises to be a very fine piece of work. The parade and inspection of the department and the dedication of a monument will make Rensselaerites sit up and take notice even though some other city might, on that day, be spending the money that Rensselaer is entitled to and should have had for the main celebration.

But there is one good thing about Rensselaerites. When someone comes along with a promise and then breaks it, the Rensselaerite, if he be a true native, smiles and when his turn comes, as it usually does, be it sooner or later, he whacks back at a time when the whacks count for something.

So there will be no funeral dirge in Rensselaer because some other town will spend our $5,000, but the day of reckoning will come later on and Rensselaer will have its own celebration, not on so grand or elaborate a scale perhaps, but a celebration worthy to commemorate the dedication of the monument and to give the people of Rensselaer a chance to see the firemen at their best and apparatus which has done so much to keep down the fire loss in this city.

But Rensselaer is not the only place that has a grievance against the up-State commission or those who were responsible for cutting off Renssealer's appropriation. Castleton people are hot about it and Cohoes and Watervliet refuse to go in with anybody and will doubtless do like Rensselaer and have a celebration of their own.

Coeymans, Coxsackie, Stuyvesant, Stockport, Athens, N. Baltimore, Tivoli, Saugerties, Rhinecliffe, Rhinebeck and Fishkill would also like to know where they get off and why they were not considered. As one gentleman put it: "These other towns can sit on the dock and watch the fleet go by."

Here are some Photos of 1909 Hudson-Fulton Celebration, including a shot of the Half Moon accidentally ramming the steamboat Clermont in NYC. There are scans of The Hudson-Fulton Celebration 1909, Volumes I and II at the Hudson River Valley Institute (HUGE PDF files). It's worth a look at the photos of the elaborate Troy, NY celebration starting on page 1333, which is page 238 of the last PDF file. (Maybe Troy got Rensselaer's celebration money back in 1909 - I wonder whether we ever "whacked back".)