The Museum is Re-Opening for the Season on April 28th

The Homestead

The Newsletter of the Waterford Historical Museum Volume 3, Number 2 April 2001

The museum will be re-opening for the summer season on April 28th. Our hours for tours will be Saturdays and Sundays 2-4 pm. We are looking for volunteers to work as docents. What are docents you say, docent is a fancy museum word for tour guide. Being a docent sounds boring, you say. Well that’s not true. If you are into local history and I presume you are because your reading this, than being a docent can be very interesting and fun. As a do-cent you get to learn more about local history, dis-cuss local history with interested people, and inter-act with visitors who would like to know about your local history. You do not have to be an expert

From the Director Hello once again! It has been a few months and I

am finally starting to get settled. I would like to thank all of the board members for helping me through that process. I would also like to thank everyone that came out to see Dr. Hollis Palmer on March 25th. The event was a great success and we had 46 people here to enjoy the excellent presentation. I would encourage everyone to come out for our next event, “Life in a Canal Town” on April 29th. This event was originally scheduled for February but had to be postponed due to the weather (please see article on pg. 2). We have applied for a NY-SCA grant for next year to re-house the photograph and map collections and we will begin work on the current textile and CAP grants in April.

I have been working on our website and everything is up-to-date, so I encourage you to check it out.

www.timesunion.com/communities/whm

Brad

on the Waterford Museum or even local history. We will provide docent training, including the local his-tory that you will need to be a docent. The museum will open for more hours in the summer when we have more visitors and more do-cents. Hours are flexible , sign-up to come when you can. To learn more about being a docent please contact the museum at 238-0809. The First Docent Training session will take place

May 6th Pancake Breakfast A museum tradition is renewed. The first Waterford Museum pancake breakfast was November 15, 1964. The breakfasts had been a staple for the citizens of this area up until a few years ago. Well Ward Patton and Phil Fountain are bringing it back! So join us for this stomach filling fund-raiser on May the 6th at the Waterford Civic Center/Senior Center. Bring your appetite and we will supply the delicious pancakes and fixings. When: 8 a.m.– 1 p.m. Tickets: Adults $4.00, Children under 10 $2.00

For more information or to volunteer to help call Ward Patton at 235-0886

Summer Bus Trip August 1st Where: Bennington Center for the Arts When: August 1, 2001 What: Tour of the Galleries and a Show

*See insert for more details.*

Come live in the past for a couple of hours at the Waterford Historical Museum and Cultural Center. We will be holding an open forum about life on the canals and life in a canal community. The program will consist of an open-forum format in which every-one is invited to tell his or her stories. The initial dis-cussion will be based on the artifacts that the muse-um will have on display, as well as any canal memo-rabilia you would like to bring. This format will provide a great opportunity to share experiences.

April 29, 2001, 2-4 pm, At the Museum

RE-SCHEDULED April 29th

Life in a Canal Town Come Share Your Stories

The Homestead Volume 3, Number 2

Page 2 April 2001

The Waterford Historical Museum 2 Museum Lane

Waterford, NY 12188 Telephone/fax: (518)238-0809 E-mail: whmcc@nycap.rr.com

Web site: http://www.timesunion.com/communities/whm

Hours Saturday & Sunday , 2:00 —- 4:00 pm

April 28 — October 29

Director Brad L. Utter

Board of Trustees

Teri Patton, President Lucy Breyer, Vice President Emily Wilson, Treasurer Cathy Walsh, Secretary Jeffrey Bennett Merle Doud Debbie Fennelly Rita Glavin Dr. Paul Grattan

Darlene Rogers Denis Lesmerises The Homestead is published six times a year (February, April, June, August, October, and December) by the Waterford Histori-cal Museum and Cultural Center, Inc., a not-for-profit organiza-tion. The Museum’s mission is to preserve and maintain the former Hugh White Homestead; to acquire and hold collections pertaining to its service area of Waterford, Halfmoon, Cohoes, and Lansingburgh; to increase awareness, understanding, and appreciation of local history; and to provide a place for cultural

Our Sponsors

We would like to give a special Thank You to Michael Cicchinelli for donating the paper and printing The Homestead. Contact Universal Office Products at 238-1315. Please support our sponsors.

Memorial Day May 28, 2001 Waterford will be holding its annual parade on Wednesday May 23rd. Please come out and show your sup-port and honor those who have served our country.

Memorial Day 1966 An “observance parade” was held in Waterford by the Charles J. Brady American Legion. The parade had numerous participants, including a group of members from the Waterford Museum riding in antique cars. The parade must have been long as there were numer-ous other groups in the parade, including the American Legion, the Lansingburgh Veterans, Cohoes Auxiliary Police, Islanders Drum and Bugle Corps, LaSalle Cadet Corps, local fire companies, cub scouts, boy scouts, brownie troops, girl scouts, and numerous other groups. The parade concluded with ceremonies held in Knickerbocker Park. My source for this information is the Troy Record May 24, 1966. The article is part of one of our many scrap-books that document the community history through newspaper articles. The article was the line-up an-nouncement so it actually predates the parade, so I am assuming that everything went as planned.

The Homestead Volume 3, Number 2

Page 3 April 2001

A Piece of History Invitation to the

First Annual Ball of the McClellan Base Ball Club, 1866

Featured Artifact Invitation to the “First Annual Ball of the

McClellan Base Ball Club.” Measurements: 6 1/4 in. by 4 inches. This invitation is a perfect example of how much we can learn about our past from objects. This invitation proved to be a stepping stone into a past time that was forgotten by many. When I found this invitation in the collection here at the Waterford Museum, I looked around for other evidence of baseball in Waterford in the 1860s. I did not find anything. So next I called some local historians and no one had even heard of baseball being played in Waterford so far back. My next step was to go to the State Manuscripts Collection and look through the old Waterford Sentinel newspaper from 1866. The newspaper turned out to be a great source. Not only was “base ball” being played in Water-ford in 1866 by the McClellan Base Ball Club, but Waterford fielded numerous teams. These teams played in and around Waterford, hosting teams from as far away as New York City. So thanks to this invitation the past was rediscovered. The Team The McClellan Base Ball Club was formed on July 10, 1866. The club was most likely named after General George McClellan, a Union General in the Civil War, who also ran for President against Lincoln in 1864. Some of the members were Civil War Veterans and lends to the likelihood for the source of the club name. The team appears to have as many as 17 members play for them at different times during the 1866 season. The McClellan’s won their first “match” 72-32 and went on to win the county championship, beating out the Unknowns from Saratoga Springs, that same year. The Ball The invitation itself is to the First Annual Ball for the McClellan Base Ball Club. After the team won the county championship they set out to make some money for the club. So they held a ball. The charge was one dollar and this included supper and good music for dancing. According to the Sentinel, the money raised was to be used “to procure and furnish a room for purposes of study, literacy exercises and amusements” (Nov. 10, 1866). Also, according to the paper, the McClellan Ball was to open the season in Waterford and “no finer affair will be offered” during that season ( Nov. 10, 1866). As I looked through the paper I learned that the “ball season” was truly active in Waterford. The paper highlighted at least one ball per week in the last two months of 1866. From the information that I have had the time to collect, it is hard to say what social class the team members were from. Base ball and the social balls were played and attended by all class levels, depending upon who hosted the event. Therefore, in order to learn more about the McClellans one could head to the census records and find out their occupations, and possibly their incomes. The invitation and the newspaper articles provide a great start to finding out more about the history of baseball in Waterford, as well as the social life of Wa-terfordians in the late 1860s. If you have any more information on this topic please contact the museum. The Waterford Sentinel was a weekly publication. The State Manu-scripts Collections at the State Library in Albany (at the State Museum) has some of the Sentinel on microfilm but also on hard copy. If you would like to see it, you should call in advance to make arrangements. The Featured Artifact will be on display when the museum opens.

Recipe from the Past This recipe is taken from a book entitled Sixty-five Delicious Dishes: Made with Bread produced by The Fleischmann Co. in 1919. Recipes by Marion Harris Neil. page 27 Chocolate Bread Pudding 2 cups stale bread crumbs 2 eggs 4 cups scalded milk 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 squares chocolate 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3/4 cup sugar

Soak crumbs in warm milk. Melt chocolate, add sugar and enough milk taken from the bread and milk to make a thin mixture. Combine with first mixture; add salt, vanilla and beaten eggs. Turn into buttered baking dish and bake one hour in moderate oven. Serve with whipped cream or whipped evaporated milk.

Become a Sponsor The Waterford Museum is currently updating its Corpo-rate/Business Sponsorship Program. In the meantime, we are still seeking Business/Corporate sponsors to come forward and donate financial assistance to the mu-seum. Please consider being a sponsor for the Waterford Museum. Your donations/sponsorship will assist us in educational programs, restoration work and in acquisi-tions of collections and equipment. Please contact the museum Director if you are interested in becoming a sponsor. 238-0809

Exhibition on Waterford’s History

Exhibition Sponsor- donations of $200.00 or more can be directed for use in a permanent exhibition or tempo-rary exhibition. We will list your business/company name as part of the exhibition. We will also include a special announcement at the exhibit opening. We are currently looking for sponsors for a new perma-nent exhibition based on the history of Waterford and surrounding area.

Thank you to those who have joined the Museum or renewed their mem-bership since February 1, 2001 Contributors Marie and Hank Dufresne Marjorie Mellor

Members

Clara Andreola Craig Bock Sandra and Charles Carpen-ter Elizabeth and Irv Derrick Bernadette Gettings Margaret McGrievey Philomena Scarchilli Sean Sullivan Marian Vandervoort

Mark your calendars: April 28, 2001 Opening Day, Annual Outdoor Clean-up 8am—12am April 29, 2001 Life in a Canal Town– Come Share Your Stories. See article on page 2. Open to the public. May 6, 2001 Pancake Breakfast Museum in the Community May 12, 2001 - Come visit our table at Canal Fest, Village of Waterford, near Lock 2. May 19, 2001- We will also be at the Peebles Island Annual Open House.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP! Thank you to members Emily Wilson and Millie Beale for or-ganizing the Spring Bus Trip. Thank you to Ward Patton and Phil Fountain for painting the pedestals for the Artifact of the Month display. Thank you to Susie Kilpatrick, member, and Director of Brookside Museum for Assisting in the Grant Application Pro-cess. Thank you to Bruce Lightfoot for all of his help with our com-puters. Contact Bruce at Lightfoot Technical Services, 518-235-1512 or e-mail: lightft@nycap.rr.com Thank you to the fourth grade teachers from Waterford Halfmoon Elementary School who came to our “Round the

Tea Table Discussion,” I believe that it was a great success.

Annual Outdoor Clean-Up Our annual outdoor pick-up day will be April 28th. We are looking for volunteers to come help clean-up the museum property. Work will begin at 8 am and finish by 12 pm. Please come and lend a helping hand with some light yard work. This will be a great opportunity to get out in the Spring sun.

Visit our website for updated programs, events and museum news. The site is growing al-most daily. Join the website as a member (for free) and show your support

www.timesunion.com/communities/whm