Feb 07

100 years ago in The Saratogian: February 7

From the George S. Bolster Collection of the Saratoga Springs History Museum

Posted: 02/07/16, 1:00 AM EST

From the George S. Bolster Collection of the Saratoga Springs History Museum

From the George S. Bolster Collection of the Saratoga Springs History Museum

MONDAY, FEB. 7, 1916

Saratoga Lake is being overfished in the winter to the detriment of summer fishing and should have a longer closed season to preserve the fish stock, according to a New York angler quoted in today’s Saratogian.

In a letter to the editor of the New York Press, Murray R. Fonda recommended that fishing in Saratoga Lake be governed by the same schedule that applies to Lake George.

In Lake George, the fishing season for pike, pickerel and wall-eyes runs from June 16 through December 31, leaving the lake closed to ice fishers most of the winter. By comparison, Saratoga Lake is open for fishing for all but two months each year, its season running from May 1 to March 1.

“I can state from personal experience that I have found the fishing poorer at Saratoga Lake every successive summer for the past four years until last summer the game was hardly worth the candle,” Fonda wrote, “and until the fish are better protected there and the fishing consequently improves I would not advise my brother anglers to seriously consider Saratoga Lake.”

Saratoga Lake Postcard 1914

Saratoga Lake Postcard 1914

The Saratoga Lake Association has already considered conservation measures, but despite his admiration for Mayor Walter P. Butler, who is also the Association president, Fonda feels that the changes proposed last December 27 were inadequate to the situation.

“The only remedy favorably considered by the [conservation] commission seems to be the elimination of night fishing through the ice and the limiting of each person to five tip-ups [i.e. bait lines] instead of the fifteen now allowed.”

To put this recommendation in perspective, Thomas C. Luther, who lives at the south end of the lake, told the commission that there were “about two thousand” tip-ups just in the vicinity of his place.

“Though this protection is good as far as it goes, it is entirely inadequate even as to winter fishing,” Fonda wrote.

Since Saratoga Lake is just a fraction of the size of Lake George – “You could in fact put it into one of the big bays of Lake George” – Fonda believes that Saratoga Lake has more need of a shorter fishing season. “Other things being equal, the smaller the lake the more protection is needed, for the less chance is there for the fish to escape destruction.”

IN THE RED. The organizers of the Russian Symphony Orchestra concerts at the Convention Hall last Saturday will end up losing approximately $500, according to manager Alfred Hallam. Poor sales for the afternoon concert, attended by 902 people compared to the 1,373 who attended the evening show, are blamed for the shortfall.

– Kevin Gilbert

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Sep 29

During the Snake Indian War, Pvt. Charles A. Fonda was mortally wounded at the skirmish of Otseo’s Lodge on April 28, 1868 against hostile Northern Paiute and Shoshone Indians near Warner Lakes, Oregon. Private Fonda was shot in the knee and since his wound was serious, it was decided to amputate his leg in the field. He did not survive the operation, and was almost certainly buried in the field. The site of the skirmish is known, but Fonda’s exact burial place is not. A government-issued headstone was placed at the site in July 2013. A newspaper account describes it as “a little east and south of the stone bridge.” The headstone was placed within 200 yards of the site of the stone bridge, on land that is on the Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge.

charlesafonda_gravestone_or2

Photo by Heather VanDomelen.

The best description of the skirmish at Otseo’s Lodge is in the book ‘The Deadliest Indian War in the West: The Snake Conflict, 1864-1868‘ by Gregory Michno (p. 315):
A group of 18 soldiers and a few Indian scouts attempted to attack a group of Snake Indians at daybreak. The Indians heard the soldiers splashing as they crossed a creek, and retreated to high ground, The soldiers then attacked uphill across open ground, and suffered many casualties. Fonda was the only fatality. The skirmish occurred about 1/2 mile east of the site of Old Camp Warner, which had been abandoned the year before. (per John Griffin, Lakeview, OR)

A Report of Surgical Cases treated in the Army of the United States from 1865 to 1871 by George Alexander Otis (p. 206):
DXXXIX – Mention of a Primary Amputation of the Thigh By JM Dickson MD Acting Assistant Surgeon.
Private Charles A Fonda Co D 23d Infantry received a severe gunshot wound of the knee joint in a skirmish near Lake Warner Oregon April 29 1868. Amputation at the lower third of the thigh was performed on the next day. He died under the operation.

There are photos of Charles (as a boy) and his family on the Fonda Blog at Illinois Fonda’s.

Thanks to John Griffin of Lakeview, Oregon for ordering and placing the military gravestone.

References: Rootsweb, Find-A-Grave
National Historic Register: Stone Bridge and the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road

charlesafonda_gravestone_or1

Photo by Heather VanDomelen.

charlesafonda_stone-bridge_or

Click image for Google Map location.

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Aug 31

At The Railyard: Fonda Johnstown & Gloversville Review

Post by trmania on Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:13 pm

…when the sewing machine came into popularity in the middle of the 19th century, it caused a boom in textile production. In Gloversville, New York, the main product of the textile industries was fine leather gloves. 20 years later, there were 116 glove and mitten manufacturers, and the Fonda Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad was constructed to haul their products out to market. What would it be like to experience the railroad 80 years later, in a simulator? We’ll find out in this review…at the railyard!

———
LINKS
———

Official “At The Railyard” website:
http://www.attherailyard.com/

Have your own opinions about this route? Share them here:
http://www.attherailyard.com/apps/forum … e-railroad

Fonda Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad by Paul Charland:
http://www.trainsim.com/file.php?cm=SEA … fjg_v1.zip

FJ&G Historical Information and Photos:
http://www.fjgrr.org/FJGRR.ORG.html

Nick

Other links:
CSX & Amtrak Trains in Fonda, NY

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Jan 21

Passions Grow Over First Native American Saint

By Sebastian Smith (AFP) – January 17, 2012

FONDA, New York — Gazing down a frozen New York field, the statue of a Mohawk girl about to become the first Native American saint exudes calm. Yet the real Kateri Tekakwitha had a brutal existence — and ghosts from her dramatic life still haunt these hills.  The 17th-century figure will make history when the Vatican canonizes her later this year, although the joy among America’s indigenous tribes will be mixed with some painful historical memories.

Kateri Tekakwitha will become the first Native American saint in the Catholic church (AFP/File, Stan Honda)

No other “Indian”, as the original inhabitants of the United States and Canada are widely, but wrongly, called, has made sainthood. Following centuries of being dispossessed, caricatured, or ignored, Native Americans will soon have the unusual experience of appearing in a positive light.  Mark Steed, the Franciscan friar heading the Kateri Shrine on the banks of the Mohawk River, said that after more than 30 years of working among Native Americans, he is happy to see them win this boost.  “They were put down, bypassed,” Friar Mark, a soft-spoken but steely tough 71-year-old, said. “So I think when you have a repressed people, any star in their crown is a plus.”

For many Native Americans, especially among the Mohawk and other Iroquois tribes straddling the US-Canadian border, Kateri’s sainthood was overdue decades ago.  The Vatican needed a certified miracle from the three-centuries-dead tribeswoman and so followers submitted reports of dozens: everything from healing the sick to levitating a man off the ground and appearing herself, hovering in deerskin clothes.  None of these passed muster. But then in 2006 doctors in Seattle confirmed an astonishing event.  Against all medical expectations, an 11-year-old Native American boy fatally ill with a flesh-eating bacteria made a full recovery. His parents had been praying to Kateri.  Although needing another five years, this one convinced the Vatican, and last month Pope Benedict XVI cleared Kateri for canonization.  Her followers may not have a date yet, but they are already excited. “It will be a celebration of first magnitude,” proclaims the January issue of the shrine’s Tekakwitha News.

Friar Mark Steed at the National Kateri Shrine in Fonda (AFP/File, Stan Honda)

Kateri’s life story encompasses the despair and — for some — the hope sown in those tumultuous early years of the white settlers.  According to Jesuit accounts and oral history, Kateri survived a settler-introduced smallpox epidemic at four, but was left orphaned and near-blind. The next calamity was a raid by French settlers and native allies who burned her village to the ground.  Again she survived, spending the next decade in a newly built village across the Mohawk River in the woods near today’s Kateri Shrine. It was here, when she was about 20, that she was baptized and entered the crucial last four years of her life.

Ostracized by her tribe, Kateri — whose native name Tekakwitha translates as “The Clumsy One” — fled to a village of converts in what is now Canada.  Despite being ravaged by illness, she tended to other sick and lived a life of extreme asceticism — including burning herself with hot coals — that attracted admiration from missionaries and converts alike.  Tradition has it that when she died, aged 24, her smallpox-scarred face suddenly cleared.  That story still inspires people around Fonda to gather in the shrine’s open-air chapel in summer, or in the 230-year-old wooden barn housing a chapel where a large painting of Kateri hangs behind the altar.  But intertwined is the dark history of European conquest and the role played by Christian conversions.  Tom Porter, who lives a short drive down the road from the Kateri Shrine, believes Kateri unwittingly contributed to the destruction of her people. “She was used,” he said in a rare interview.

Statue of Kateri Tekakwitha by Joseph-Émile Brunet at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, near Quebec City.

Unlike many modern Mohawks who have either converted or are not interested in any religion, Porter works actively to restore the old beliefs.  He lives with family and a handful of followers on a farm where they grow their own crops, raise cattle and use work horses to plow the earth. A longtime Mohawk acting chief, Porter is immersed in the spiritual ways of his forefathers.  Inviting a reporter to join a huge family meal in the compound’s main house, Porter, whose native name is Sakokwenionkwas, or “He Who Wins”, said the moon, the sun and thunder are more important to the Iroquois than saints or popes.  “Christianity is not a shoe that will ever fit. Not for my feet, or my heart, or my soul,” he said.  A humorous man, Porter carries echoes in his face of the proud, eagle-like features seen in old pictures of tribesmen. But he could not conceal his bitterness.  To him, there is no difference between the spread of Christianity and the cruel policies, including forced assimilation in grim 20th-century government boarding schools, that were used to subjugate Native Americans.

Aged 67, Porter has made sure every one of his five daughters, one son, and 11 grandchildren follows the traditional ways.  He thinks Kateri was probably forced to become a Catholic. “I don’t know if she really was a Christian or not,” he said. “They were in poverty at that time. The Europeans had destroyed everything, people were destitute and starving, and if you wanted to get help of any kind you had to be a Christian.”  Porter conceded that few Mohawk agree with him. He even admitted that some in his extended family are devoted to Kateri.  “It breaks my heart,” he said.  Friar Mark acknowledged that there had been “terrible” sins and was determined to heal the wounds.

In the wooden chapel at the Kateri Shrine, a native blanket covers the altar. Snowshoes and deerskins hang from the rafters, and sacred herbs like tobacco and sage lie drying.  There’s a crucifix, of course, but also a picture of the tree and turtle at the center of the Native American creation legend.  Soon after taking up his position in Fonda a year ago, the tall Canadian friar went to call on Porter. “He was amazed,” Friar Mark recalled.  Since then, the two have met often and while they don’t agree, they listen to one another, an odd couple making peace on the spot where a future saint once lived.  “He’s a friend,” Porter said of Friar Mark. “When I was growing up, there was no one who hated priests and nuns more than I did. But I got over that now. All my enemies — they became my good friends.”

More links: USA Today, About.com, Wikipedia

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Sep 17

Here are some photos of the family of James Robert Fonda (1816-1891), born in West Troy, Rensselaer Co., NY in 1816, who settled in Wyoming, Lee Co., IL prior to 1870.  He was reportedly an orphan at 9 years old, although the burial record of father is in 1837, so he could have been adopted.  He became a blacksmith and married Alzina Bacon of Fulton, Oswego Co., NY in December 1837.  She died in 1852, leaving him with six children.  He then married Jane E. Hendricks, the daughter of John Hendricks of Wayne Co., NY and had five more children.  They moved to Wyoming, Illinois after the Civil War, with the four youngest children, founding a Methodist Episcopal Church in about 1870.

One son, Fitch Fenton Fonda (1840-1864), born in Fulton, Oswego Co., NY, served in the Civil War for the New York 59th Infantry (Private) in the Battles of Wilderness and Weldon Railroad.  He was taken prisoner on June 22, 1864 and died of disease at Andersonville Confederate Prison on October 2, 1864.  He is buried at the Andersonville National Cemetery.

Another son, Erwin Roselle Fonda (1844-1919), born in Fulton, Oswego Co., NY, also served in the Civil War for the New York 147th Infantry (Corporal) in the Battles of Wilderness, Chancellorsville and Hatcher’s Run.  He caught Typhoid Fever and was slightly wounded as well.  He was discharged, went home to Illinois, then returned to the war as a Secretary to a Quartermaster.  Later he became an Engineer with the Union Pacific and was headquartered in Omaha, NE as of 1881.

A notable descendant of this family is Albert Neir Brown (1905-2011), great grandson of James Robert Fonda, born in North Platte, NE and raised in Council Bluffs, IA, where he excelled in sports and became involved in the ROTC.  He married his high school sweetheart, Helen Johnson in 1925, attended Creighton University School of Dentistry, established a dental practice, started a family and became a licensed pilot.  He had continued in the ROTC in college and afterwards in the reserves at the rank of First Lieutenant.  He was called to active duty in October 1940 (Capt. in Dental Corps) and when war broke out he was stationed at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, which was attacked and overrun by the Japanese just hours after Pearl Harbor in December 1941.  He was captured and survived the infamous Bataan Death March and over three years as a Japanese prisoner of war.  Upon his release, he was treated for three years at Fitzsimons Hospital in Denver.  He then moved to Hollywood, Calif. where his sister and brother-in-law were involved in show business.  He worked in the real estate business, became an active member of the Hollywood YMCA and an avid handball player.  In 1993 Albert moved to Pinckneyville, Ill. where he made his home with his daughter.  He died in a nursing home in Nashville, Illinois, on August 14, 2011, at the age of 105.  At the time of his death he was the oldest living survivor of the Bataan Death March.  He was also listed as the oldest living WWII veteran. He had been awarded the Purple Heart, the Philippine Defense Ribbon with one star, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Defense Ribbon with one star, the American Theater Ribbon, the Asiatic-Pacific Ribbon and the WWII Victory Medal. [link] [link] [link] [link]

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