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Image provided by: Guilderland Public Library
4 The Altamont Enterprise - Thursday, February 24, 2000 Countryside gleanings The sound of the whistle By Lansing Christman I had to stop at a railroad crossing the other afternoon for a long freight train. It was a bright Winter day of sun. Usually on such occasions, I count the cars as the turning wheels sing their clickity-clack song. But for some reason, instead of counting cars, I found myself slipping back into one of my seances • And there I was among the spirits, the spirits of my memories. WHY ARE 37 MILLION CARS INSURED WITH STATE FARM? JUST ASK A GOOD NEIGHBOR. Don't trust just anyone to insure your car, see me: Elaine Van DeCarr, Agent 848 Kenwood Ave. Slingeriands, NY 12159 Office: (518) 439-1292 Home: (518) 861-6675 Like a good neighbor, State Farm IHSUIANCI , s (here. 1 \ State Famt Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (not in NJ) State Farm Indomfy Company (UJ) • Home Offices Bkwwxjtwt, lamas Having grown up by a railroad, I have an affinity for trains, especially passenger trains. I rode one for four years as a teenager. My last ride on that train was in 1929. Some years later, man deserted the rails for the highway and the air. The train with which I was familiar was to make its final run between Albany and Binghamton on the D & H line. The finale had been widely publicized. But instead of boarding the train, I decided to watch it step into history from my own dooryard. I heard the shrill whistle late in the day at Ostrander's Crossing below our farm. Then I saw the train round the bend as it headed for Christman's Crossing, sounding again its familiar warning. A three-car train had grown into seven. All along the line, passengers had gone aboard for a final ride. There was something nostal- gic about the sound of the whistle as I watched the train round the bend and head on over the rails past our weathered house. Time and again, and for year after year, I had listened to the same shrill whistle from the house, or from the woods or gardens or fields. This was the train's final run into the sunset. This was the last time I would hear its wheels sing their song. This was the last time I would hear that familiar whistle. And so I watched and listened in deep thought. I was witness to the end of an era marked by the ebbing sun of a Winter's day — a rich recessional for a grand finale. George W. Frueh Sons FUEL OIL • KEROSENE luel Oil $1.14 a gallon • Call for today's price • Cash Only 436-1050 Mobil ' Cash Only 436-1050 t % Capital Area Permanente Medical Group Rotterdam Medical Office Kaiser Permanente has left but our providers & staff are here for you! New Patients are welcome newborns, children, adults & seniors 3060 Hamburg Street (corner of Hamburg St. & Curry Rd.) Schenectady, NY 12303 (518)356-4760 Saaket Gupta, M.D. Irina Kaplan, M.D. Akxay Patel, D.O Fred Atkins, PA Faith Harrington, N.P. We participate with the following insurances & will be accepting others in the near future. % CDPHP & CDPHP MEDICARE CHOICE MEDICARE BLUE SHIELD OF NE, NY GUI - HMO SHARED HEALTH EMPIRE PLAN (NY STATE) The Enterprise opinion pages are an open forum for our community. We encourage readers to express their thoughts about issues that . appear in this newpaper or affect the community. Letters should be brief, and must include the writer's address, signature, and phone nuber for verification. The editors may reject letters that have been printed elsewhere. Letters concerning elections will be cut off one issue before the election. No unsigned letters. Deadline for letters is Tuesday at noon. 0<4<*spiXsG. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia George Loving Brown painted \Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness\ in the 1840's. Guilderland's John L. Schoolcraft was visiting Europe then and purchased the painting, which may have once graced his mansion on Western Avenue. As restoration work on the mansion proceeds, Town Historian Alice Begley is investigating what paintings may have hung there, and where they are now. From the historian's desk John Schoolcraft's art collection J By Alice Begley The Schoolcraft name has popped up many times and from many different places recently. Three news stories told of the resurgence of the restoration of the old John L. Schoolcraft mansion on the Great Western Turnpike. New efforts to return the house to its original splendor have begun. The architect, Lawrence Wilson, has drawn plans for the third phase of the project. The diamond-paned front bay window, corner piers, rooftop finials and decoration will be re- paired and restored as well as the porch on the south side of the house; this work is expected to begin by May. When the front facade is com- plete, the new historically cor- rect colors of the mansion will surprise town residents. The renewed vigor concerning the house has made previously researched information relevant. European art comes to Guilderland When Schoolcraft was 37 years old, he took a voyage to Europe from November 1843 to May 1844. While there, he fo- cused his interests on the archi- tecture of the early Gothic churches and temples. And, he revealed his passion for the work of the American-born ro- mantic artists living in Rome and Florence at the time. Schoolcrafts's journal is a de- tailed description of the many cities he visited and his impres- sions of the scenery, the people, and the European art. On March 22, 1844, School- craft wrote home to his aging mentor and close friend, Thurlow Weed, editor of the Albany Evening Journal and political leader of the New York Whig Party. \I have purchased seven large paintings, cost $2,000,\ he wrote. \I shall not receive them until next Fall. (Artist) G.L. Brown is on nothing but land- scapes, I have purchased one from him.\ Later, his letter of April 2, 1844 informed Weed, \I shall have nine large pictures. The thought just occurred to me what shall I do with them. It will require two large rooms. I must arrange for this when I re- turn.\ It is believed that Schoolcraft added the west wing to his man- sion on the Turnpike to house the paintings he shipped to Albany. Assemblyman James W. Williams of Utica mentioned Schoolcraft's art collection and the Schoolcraft house in a letter he sent March 22, 1850 from Albany to his wife in Utica. In referring to the architect hired to \manage architectural effects\ in a house he was building, Williams wrote, \I find that he (Woollett, the architect) has been employed by Mr. Delevan, Mr. Kidd, Mr. Schoolcraft and ex-president Van Buren. His plan of a cottage for Mr. Schoolcraft is pleasing. It has a picture room which will be adorned by those paintings of Freeman which we saw at the Exhibition here in Albany.\ The west wing of the School- craft house was built later than the original structure. It has a vaulted ceiling with molding in frame-shape sections and large wall spaces. It is conceivable that this was the room School- craft chose to display his Euro- pean paintings. Schoolcraft actually pur- chased 19 paintings. Several works were for friends who had commissioned him to do so. Many were continuously dis- played in the Atheneum on Broadway in Albany that housed The Albany Academy of Fine Arts Gallery in 1846. Schoolcraft was the third presi- dent of the Gallery that devel- oped into the Albany Institute of History and Art. One of the Schoolcraft paint- ings was \St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness\ by Brown. It hangs now in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Phila- delphia. This historian is inves- tigating where other paintings might he. More Schoolcraft connections A' letter from Claremont, Calif, requested information on the Schoolcraft House and fam- ily. Miss Nora Frisbee had seen an article on John L. Schoolcraft in the December issue of the Daughters of the American Revolution magazine. She en- closed an old photograph of Mabel Schoolcraft. And last, certainly not least, unearthed is an original Indenture dated Sept. 2, 1833 between Jacob Lagrange and his wife, Elizabeth, to Russeil Case for the property called Eliza- beth-Field. The Commissioner of Deeds who signed the document was John Schoolcraft. (More about this in a later column.) Quilt query In the Altamont Museum lobby display case is a grand old red-and-white signature quilt, estimated to have been created in 1900 or before. Handwritten embroidered signatures include: Mrs. E. Keenholts, Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Sand, the VanAernams, A.V. Wormer, Addie Sitterly, Howard Ogsbury, John Ogsbury, Effie Reid, J. Blessing, Anna Fryer, Bessie Ogsbury, J. Van Aernatn, and Martha Crounse among many more. Can any village resident en- lighten us as to who made the quilt, where, and for what occa- sion? Call me at 456-3032 or 861-8554.
