Fordham students in Mexico, 1966

“Her Name Was Margarita” is inspired by a series of events involving Fordham College students in the summer of 1966, and of one girl who was captured by an experience, perhaps a vision, that led her away from the joys of youth and love that so many in her generation were celebrating. Her name, you could say, was Margarita.

In the late 1960s the University launched a social service program in Mexico, which grew into the university's present Global Outreach Program. The Mexico Project began with the arrival of a few idealistic students in the village of Potrero not far from Vera Cruz. The town was chosen by Father Medellin, a Fordham professor and native of the town whose family ran the local sugar mill. Over time, their mission became more clearly defined, but in the early years they were often on their own.

The tale is a work of fiction inspired by those events, and the characters are composites of the students who came to Potrero. The students of the Mexico Project were distinctly Catholic and although they were often as opposed to the Viet Nam war as the rest of their generation, it was the teachings of their church that inspired them. They may have tutored in the Bronx ghetto or worked with the homeless in the Bowery, but the S.D.S. had not yet appeared on campus and no one had occupied the president's office. Fordham in 1966 was not Columbia.

The narrator of this story meets Margarita at one of the huge antiwar marches in Manhattan, but most of their fellow students back on campus were still devoted to the ROTC, and dreaming of careers with the CIA or FBI. She and her friends are among the first female students at Fordham, sharing classes with the boys but part of a distinct program then known as Thomas More College. She has recently transferred from Marymount but is restless in the conservative environment of her new school.

The tale's narrator falls in love with her at first sight, and together they join the Mexico Project. At Potrero they discover that their host, Padre Guillermo, believes the boys to be engineering students and sets them to work rebuilding his church. Only when one of its walls has been demolished, with the aid of enthusiastic local men, does it become clear that no one knows what they are doing. The girls, who were expected to act as nurses at the town clinic, have as little idea of what to do.

Margarita, whose mother is Cuban, speaks fluent Spanish and takes charge of organizing English classes, to be taught by the girls. The boys, in the meantime, take on projects requiring less skill, building foundations for new houses and repairing footbridges across the river that divides the town.

And then things begin to change. The narrator discovers what he believes to be the ruins of an ancient city. In the course of exploring a tunnel into what may have been an ancient pyramid, Margarita encounters something that she cannot explain. A local woman tells her that she is a “bruja,” a witch or, to be more precise, a kind of shaman and attributes mysterious healing powers to her. Margarita is drawn back to the ruins, unable to say why, seeking something she cannot name.

In the course of a fierce storm and flood that nearly drowns the town, she disappears, only to be found after a desperate search.  And then she disappears once more.

“Her Name Was Margarita” is available for 99 cents only on Kindle.

(also available in Spanish translation)

Nearly forgotten Revolutionary War Battlefields near Herkimer, NY

After the British defeat at Saratoga in 1777, and the enemy's retreat from Fort Stanwix, the patriots never again faced a major force in upstate New York, but the war continued as Iroquois and Tory raiders launched bloody hit-and-run raids on the less defended settlements and farmsteads. A regular force of the Continental Army was stationed at Fort Dayton (located near the court house in Herkimer) and conducted patrols into the surrounding country in a search for these raiding parties. In May, 1780 Lieutenant Solomon Woodworth led a company on one such patrol and fell into an ambush. In his 1856 “History of Herkimer County,” Judge Nathaniel Benton describes the battle:

 “Having proceeded a few hours on the march, an Indian was discovered who was immediately fired upon, when the rangers found themselves involved in an inextricable ambuscade, and completely surrounded by an Indian force double their own numbers. The conflict that followed was severe and sanguinary, as might well have been expected from the character of the combatants engaged, and a hand to hand fight left but fifteen of the Americans, who escaped to tell the sad fate of their brethren. Some of this party were taken prisoners, but Woodworth and about half of his men were killed on the spot.

This fatal encounter took place about three miles north of Herkimer village, on the east side of the West Canada creek, in a deep ravine, where now may be seen the mound of earth, under rest the remains of the gallant Woodworth and his brave companions. The killed, it appears, were all collected and buried in one common grave, unshrouded and uncoffined, with no monument to tell where rest the brave but unfortunate defenders of American liberty.”

Although the mound -if there was one- marking the final resting place of these heroes has vanished, a monument was erected in 1959 on Smith Road north of Shells Bush Road (County Route 94), on the left when traveling north. (Milo Smith lived on this road and made a hobby of carving circus figures. His replicas of the Sautelle Circus Boats, which traveled from town to town of the Erie Canal, are exhibited at Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts)

Note: Although Benton believed that the slain were buried near where they fell, it appears that Lt. Woodworth and Sgt. Phelps were buried at Mayfield. This site also describes his earlier heroism in that area.

map courtesy of Herkimer County Historical Society

Another tragic and nearly forgotten battle took place a year later at a blockhouse built by the Schell family a few miles away. The site was near the present-day Shells Bush Road which intersects Route 169 between Little Falls and Middleville. Johann Christian Schell was a veteran of the battle at Oriskany and clearly a man of exceptional courage. Benton describes his response to the raiders:

    “On the 6^th of August, 1781 a German settlement called Shell's Bush, three or four miles north of Fort Dayton, was visited by a party of these formidable asserters of the rights of the crown. Donald McDonald, a Scotch refugee from Johnstown, with a party of about sixty Indians and Tories, with whom was Empie and Cassleman, two famous traitors, the latter being the same man who was with the party that attacked Rheimensnyder's bush in April, 1780, made their appearance in the Shell settlement in the afternoon of the above day, when most of the inhabitants had retired to Fort Dayton, for protection. Some indications of this hostile movement must have been previously discovered, or the inhabitants would not have sought the protection of the fort. There was, however, one man, John Christian Shell, the husband of a brave and resolute wife, and the father of six sons, who determined to brave out the storm, let come what would. He had a strong blockhouse on his farm, well constructed for purposes of defense against marauding parties of Tories and Indians; and he resolved to fight rather than run. The first story of logs had no openings except a doorway or entrance, well protected by a massive door, and loopholes through which the besieged could fire upon their assailants. The floor of the second story projected over the lower part of the building, and had apertures in the projecting floor, affording ample means of annoying the enemy who might approach the building to fire it or break open the door below. Shell had a good supply of arms and ammunition to stand an ordinary siege. When the enemy made their appearance, Shell and his sons were in the field at work, but his two youngest, being twins only eight years old, were so far off he could not save them when he retired to his blockhouse, and they were taken and carried to Canada. Having gained his castle and secured the entrance, Shell and his little garrison were resolute and alert, and kept up a spirited fight from two o'clock until dark. Some of the incidents are worthy of particular notice. Shell's wife was active in loading the pieces fired by her husband and four sons. McDonald several times attempted to set fire to the building, but failed. His men were several times compelled to retreat, in consequence of the galling fire received from the party in the blockhouse, McDonald made an effort to force the door with a crowbar, but was wounded in the leg while so engaged, and none of his party being near enough to rescue him, Shell did not hesitate a moment to unbar the door and drag the wounded Tory leader into his fortress. This capture not only secured Shell against being burnt out by the enemy, but afforded an ample supply of ammunition to the little garrison, whose stock was becoming rather short. To save his life, McDonald gave up his cartridges to be used against his followers. A short respite took place between the belligerents, but the enemy returned and made a vigorous effort to take the blockhouse by assault. They came up to the walls and thrust the muzzles of their pieces through the loopholes, when Madam Shell by a blow upon five of them with an axe, rendered them useless; this being followed by several deliberate shots from the little garrison, compelled the assailants to retire to a respectful distance. Just at dark, Shell practiced a little stratagem which induced the enemy to suppose that troops were approaching from Fort Dayton, whereupon they fled to the woods, taking with them Shell's two little sons. After providing for the Tory commander in the best manner they could, the family started for the fort, which they reached in safety. Some of McDonald's Indians visited him, after the family went away, but finding he could not be removed, they left him to the mercy of the Americans, with the message to Shell that the welfare of his little boys depended on the treatment bestowed on McDonald. The wounded prisoner was taken to the fort the next day, when his leg was amputated. The enemy's loss on the ground was quite severe, eleven killed and six wounded. The little boys, on their return after the war, stated that nine out of twelve wounded which the enemy started with, died before they reached Canada.

In the following year Shell and two of his sons, being at work in the field not far from his blockhouse, were fired upon by a party of Indians secreted in a wheat field, and he was dangerously wounded. The sons remained with their father until a party from the fort came to their relief. One of the sons was, however, shot dead and the other wounded, before the guard arrived. John Christian Shell did not long survive his wounds, and thus closed the life of a brave and resolute man and a pure and devout Christian. During the short cessation in the attack on the blockhouse, Shell addressed his Maker in a hymn of deliverance from peril, used by the early German reformers.

The Shellsbush settlement is on what is usually called Gens Purchase, embracing perhaps some portion of the Royal Grant, and it will be observed that the name of Shell, Schel or Shaul does not occur among the patentees of Burnet field, nor is the name found in the list of Palatines remaining in New York, or taken to Livingston Manor, of the first two companies that emigrated. Enough is still known of him to authorize the conclusion that he was a German Lutheran, and he or his ancestors may have come over with the third body of immigrants in 1722, or at a later period. The singularly rude and unharmonious account of Shell's conflict with the Tories and Indians, contained in Campbell's Annals of Tryon county, has contributed very much to keep that event fresh in the recollection of the descendants of his German neighbors.”

The site of Schell's blockhouse was commemorated by a monument erected by the Daughters of the American revolution in 1908. The site is on private land a couple miles east of the intersection of Smith Road and Shells but I am not sure if the monument is still there. 

Also in 1780 Tory and Iroquois raiders truck the settlement of Riemenschnider's Bush, a few miles north of Little Falls, and kidnapped 19 prisoners, most of whom were returned when the war ended. Long ago, I heard a legend that the raiders carried off a small brass cannon from the settlement, eventually abandoning it in the forest near Stewarts Landing on Canada Lake. I have never been able to verify that story nor have my efforts to locate the site of Riemenschneiders Bush been successful.

Judge Benton's history is a very rare book but the entire text  may be read at Google Books. In addition I have made available an abridged version at $5.45 in paper and free as an e-book.

Those who are interested in fictional treatments of the Revolutionary War in the Mohawk Valley may be interested in my "Neither Rebel nor Tory," the story of Hanyost Schuyler and his critical role in breaking the siege of Fort Stanwix. Judge Benton, who played such a large role in the development of Little Falls, makes an appearance in my tale of the Underground Railroad, "Greater Love."

Discussion of Alfred Dolge at Little Falls Historical Society

 

 

From the Little Falls Times, April 13, 2015

Cooney to speak on new Alfred Dolge book

LITTLE FALLS – Little Falls native Michael Cooney will be joined by Herkimer County Historical Society Executive Director Susan Perkins for a presentation focused on Cooney's recent book, “Alfred Dolge.”

The presentation will take place at the Little Falls Historical Society's 7 p.m. meeting at the WCA at 534 Garden Street, Little Falls.

Perkins will open the presentation by providing much of the factual background of Dolge's eventful life while Cooney will address some of the reasons for the downfall of Dolge's various business enterprises in late-19^th century Dolgeville.

By the 1880s, Dolge had established a complex industrial organization and envisioned a socialist utopia community in the small Herkimer County community that bears his name. However, by 1890, Dolge had fallen into bankruptcy and shortly thereafter moved his family to California.

The Perkins-Cooney presentation will be preceded by a business meeting of the Little Falls Historical Society. Light refreshments will be served after the presentation. All meetings of the Little Falls Historical Society are free and open to the public.

NOTE:

This will be a joint meeting with the Dolgeville-Manheim Historical Society. That group's president Bob Maxwell will also be part of the panel discussion and will be sharing some of the more portable Dolge memorabilia from their museum. As has been the practice for the past several years, the village of Dolgeville will feature a dramatization drawn from its founder's life during the annual Violet Festival, June 13-15, 2015.

The evening's program will be broadcast on the new Little Falls Community Radio.

 

Additional reading from this site:

 

The Enlightened Capitalism of Alfred Dolge

 

The Downfall of Alfred Dolge

 

Return to the Village of Alfred Dolge



"The True History of Joseph Smith"

In paperback at Amazon for $14.95

On Amazon Kindle for $2.99

The True History of Joseph Smith is a new novel that celebrates - and closely follows - the career of one of Upstate New York's most famous sons, Joseph Smith of Palmyra. Although the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has long been associated with the state of Utah, its origins lies among the New Englanders who flooded into western New York following the end of the American Revolution.

This historical novel gives voice to Joseph Smith's long-forgotten sister, Sophronia, who tells the story of their shared lives from early childhood to his violent death. She was there when he saw visions in the woods behind his parents' farm and dug for treasure in the hills of western New York. With an almost obsessive love for her brother, she managed to overlook or find excuses for all his adventures with girls – and with the law- in his adolescent years.

When he founded a new religion, she went along with the rest of Joseph's family and followed him as he led them from one Zion to another, from Ohio to Missouri to Illinois. When she finds him seducing a hired girl in a barn, she is stricken speechless – yet when she peeps through a keyhole and witnesses his intimacy with another man's wife, she somehow reconciles his behavior with her faith in her brother. And her faith is not simply in him but in God, whom she experiences through her relationship with Joseph - whatever his obvious flaws and transgressions of accepted moral codes.

In this novel Sophronia is not merely a passive observer. She is surprisingly independent for her time and stands up to the men around her, ranging from her father and brothers to her two husbands. Increasingly, she tells Joseph the truth even as she has to confront the evidence of wife after after wife.

In fact, she becomes friends from a number of her brother's wives – while still staying close to Emma, his only legal spouse. When Joseph heads toward his death at the Carthage jail, Sophronia and two of his wives ride after him in a failed rescue attempt.

Those who know early LDS history will find many familiar characters here: Lucy Mack Smith, Hyrum and Don Carlos Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Porter Rockwell, Oliver Cowdery. Less familiar figures like Sally Chase, who gave Joseph his first seer stone, and Prescindia Buell, the plural wife who bore him a son, also have important roles in the novel.

Those who have less, or no, familiarity with the church founded by Smith will also  find much of interest in this tale of 19th century Americans, many of them from our state. These men and women drew on beliefs and practices that were widely shared among the early settlers from England. They shared an abiding faith in personal revelations, an ancient belief in all kinds of folk magic, and an unstoppable enthusiasm for creating a new society and way of life.  

A new historical novel of the South Bronx in the 1970s

The Great Monroe High School Fire is an historical novel set in an era that many would rather forget, a time barely a generation ago when New York City was beset by an epidemic of crime, drugs and arson. Unlike the 18^th and 19^th century conflicts whose even minor episodes are celebrated with pride here in our small upstate towns, the City's descent into near anarchy in the 1970s is not noted with any historical markers or monuments in neighborhoods like the South Bronx or Bushwick. Much of the neglect both in the 1970s and today, of course, is about race. But some, I believe, is also because it is hard to find heroes in that era. This book attempts to remedy that lack.

The new novel is based upon a forgotten episode of the violent 1970s, an unsolved arson fire that did major damage to James Monroe High School in the South Bronx. The school was built in 1924 when the expansion of secondary education became a primary means of integrating first and second generation European immigrants into American life. For a time the largest high school in the world, Monroe had become racially segregated by the early 1970s, not by law but in fact. The African American, Caribbean and Latino families who had moved into the Bronx neighborhoods served by the school faced a different world from the Italians, Irish, Germans and Jews who had preceded them. A flood of drugs and a rising crime rate collided with a school system still recovering from the racially divisive strikes of 1967 and 1968. And then came the fires, waves of arson that consumed so many of the old neighborhoods of five story walk-ups, from Vyse Avenue to Kelly Street.

Young men in the Monroe neighborhood thirty years later

The story is told by Giuseppe Sanchez in a mix of Spanish, Italian and street slang combined with a vocabulary he has learned from reading and eavesdropping. (A glossary is provided at the back of the book) The story told by the boy, whose mother is Italian and father Puerto Rican, begins when he goes to Junior High 22 on 167^th Street near the Grand Concourse and meets his closest friend, Sapo.

“When we got to 22 in sixth grade, the place was like the Bronx Zoo only the animals in the zoo was more civilized. First day, my English teacher Mr. Z opens the door because someone’s knocking and this gidrul spits right in his face. I almost felt sorry for the guy, a young teacher just out of college. I don’t know why he waited two whole months before he walked out of class one morning and just disappeared.

To get back to Sapo. He bumped into me in gym class for nothing so I shoved him into the wall. We each landed a couple of good punches before big fat Mr. Greenfarb came over and sat on us until we quit fighting. We were homeboys from then on.

The two of us had each other’s back and even when the whole Career Guidance crew went after us, we did okay. The CG guys were all at least 15 but too dumb to be sent to high school so they had to stay in one room all day long and weren't allowed to associate with normal kids except when they had to eat. One day in the lunchroom Sapo made some comment about them being retards and they all went after us, knocking over chairs and tables like the maniaticos they were. Sapo and I kept picking up trays of Sloppy Joes and Tater Tots and throwing them until the CGs were slipping and falling all over themselves. This kind of shit was happening every day in that school.

Giuseppe, who prefers to be called Joey, and his friend Sapo come into conflict with the principal at 22 and respond by turning to hooky playing and graffiti. When Joey and his mother are forced to move to the Little Italy neighborhood on Arthur Avenue, the two friends lose touch but reunite a couple years later at Monroe. After a stint at Spofford juvenile detention center, Sapo is now into dealing marijuana. Joey becomes a willing recruit, if only to impress Siobhan, a Fordham College student who has befriended him.

Graffiti began to be recognized as an art form in

the 1970s and is still flourishing near Monroe

Siobhan, like many Fordham students then and now, is Irish-American and far better off than anyone Joey knows. His infatuation with her, however, fades when he realizes she is only interested in him for the marijuana he can provide. (It should be noted that in more recent decades, Fordham has reached out to include far more students from Joey's economic class and has played a major role in training teachers for City schools. And unlike NYU, Fordham never abandoned the Bronx.)

Although Sapo continues to draw Joey into dangerous situations, including a botched drug deal in which both are nearly killed, he is very different from his peers in several ways. One is the fascination with reading which he owes to his mother:

“I remember one time she was washing the dishes and I was drying them. “And if you make sure you have good habits, your whole life will be better.”

“Like what kind of good habits, Mom?”

“Reading is the best habit you can have.”

“But you always say you’re too tired to read.”

“That’s because I have to work. If your father had been a good man instead of a disgraziato, I would have had time to read. And I don’t mean just trashy love stories but serious books. I could have gotten my diploma and maybe take night classes.”

Not too long after that conversation she came home lugging a cardboard box. “You know old Mr. Feldman who died? His wife gave me some of his books that she thought you might like.”

And you know what? I really did like them. Mr. Feldman must have saved every book he ever read because a lot of them were kids’ stories from fifty years ago. There were all these stories of a boy inventor named Tom Swift. Some of his inventions were not exactly new any more, like his Amazing Motorcycle or his Fantastic Camera. But some of the stuff, like a flying submarine, still hasn’t been invented. Mr. Feldman also must have liked war stories when he was a kid because there was a whole stack of books about these two boys who were having adventures in World War One. They had sword fights with Germans and all kind of things that probably never happened but even so, the stories were way more interesting than TV.”

Another major influence on Joey is his English teacher, Miss Bonsecour, whose interest in the boy strikes many as inappropriate. She not only gives him books but takes him to the Metropolitan Museum. When she is targeted for removal by a new principal, a series of events is set in motion, culminating in the arson attack on the school, an attack which was completely ignored by the City's media and political elites at the time.

For Joey the fire had a larger meaning:

“I’d read in the Monroe library how the old Library of Alexandria was burned down back in Roman times. The ancient scrolls that contained all the knowledge in the world were destroyed and people became incredibly ignorant. And that's when the Dark Ages began.”

The book is aimed at both young adult and adult readers, and is suitable for high school students. (Language is a bit R-rated.)

The Great Monroe High School Fire can be purchased in paperback at either Amazon.com or Lulu.com for $9.95. The kindle version is $2.99.

Click for Amazon paperback $9.95

Click for Kindle edition $2.99

Also, for those who wish not to patronize Amazon, The Great Monroe High School Fire is  available in paperback at Lulu.com for $9.95

Monroe was finally closed in 1994. The building now houses several small schools for different age children and appeared to be quite successful during a recent visit. Those interested in educational reform in the Monroe neighborhood during recent years may want to take a look at Five Years at Fannie Lou, available for 99 cents on kindle. The short book focuses on portfolio-centered assessment at Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School, a successful new small high school not far from the scenes of the novel. The district, it should be noted is still among the poorest in the US.

Update  July, 2015: "In the Forest of Tombolo" is another work inspired by Monroe and is based on the experiences of a World War II veteran who taught at the school in the 1970s. Students and faculty of that era may recognize the tale's narrator and recall his stories of the war in Italy and his later encounters with poets of the Beat Generation.

Greater Love: a Tale of the Underground Railroad in Little Falls, New York

Greater love than this, no man has
     -John, 15:13

Greater Love, available for $.99 on Kindle, is a new short story about the Underground Railroad in Little Falls, New York. The historical record of he activities of the Underground Railroad in that immediate area is very limited, but Richard Buckley has found evidence that there was a station at Little Falls, centered on the African Methodist Episcopal church which stood– as far as I can determine - on West Main near Furnace Street.  A leader in that congregation, Enoch Moore, was himself an escaped slave and a chief organizer of the town’s branch of the secret network that guided fugitives from the slave states all the way to freedom

Southern Exiles on their Way North by Thomas Nast, Harpers Weekly 1858

Enoch Moore appears in the story, which is set in 1853 when the Fugitive Slave Act, passed a year earlier, had unleashed legions of southern slave-catchers armed with the legal authority to pursue fugitives  anywhere in the U.S. and to deputize free citizens in the North to aid in their manhunts.  Under the Act, anyone aiding a fugitive would face a $1000 fine (at the time an enormous sum) and a six month jail sentence.  

Richard Buckley’s research makes it clear that the anti-slavery efforts in Little Falls were not confined to African Americans.  In Greater Love, two leading white citizens of the town are active in aiding fugitives:  Judge Nathaniel Benton and former congressman and attorney Arphaxad Loomis.  Loomis, who had liberated the town from the death grip of the Ellice Estate twenty years earlier,  was clearly a man of strong ideals and I believe that it corresponds with his character to imagine him as an ardent member of the Underground Railroad.

Much of the drama is set in an actual cavern which extends for an unknown distance in the vicinity of West Monroe Street and Topnotch Road.  The cavern, whose very existence has been almost completely forgotten, was known in the 19^th century as Hinman’s Hole and evidently resembles Howe Caverns in its geology, consisting of a series of tunnels and an underground stream.  It appears that the only time it was explored was in the 1840s when a group of students from the Fairfield Academy descended into its dangerous depths. (The cave also probably resembles Schroeders Pants Cave in Dolgeville where cave explorer James Mitchell lost his life in 1965)

Hinman’s Hole is depicted in the story as a refuge for a family of fugitives who are being closely pursued by a band of southern slave-catchers. The possibility that the cave was actually used as such a hiding place is in the category of myth.

What is very true is that the East-West route from Troy to Rochester was an important branch of the Underground Railroad during the 1840s and 50s. Frederick Douglass in Rochester and Harriet Tubman in Auburn played a major part in the final stage of moving thousands to Canada.  Another, less well-known former slave and anti-slavery leader was the Rev. JermainWesley Loguen, who was educated at the Oneida Institute near Utica and centered his activities in Syracuse. According to Richard Buckley, Rev. Loguen had visited the AME Zion church in Little Falls. 

 

          Jermain Wesley Loguen                

Louguen, who escaped slavery in Tennessee. spoke eloquently against the Fugitive Slave Act and had been helping fugitives for many years. In his memoir he describes an 1839 escape in Syracuse when a slavemaster named Davenport came north with what appeared to be his wife, infant child, and older daughter Harriet. The older daughter was a slave, despite her white appearance, and Davenport’s intent was to sell her for $2500 to a local man “for the worst of purposes.”  The citizens of Syracuse sprang into action and spirited her off to Canada and the city remained strong in the anti-slavery cause through  the next two decades.

           

Stephen and Harriet Myers House , Livingston Ave. Albany

 Anti-slavery feeling also ran high in the Capital District where Stephen Myers assisted in setting the fugitives on the east-west route.  Troy was the scene of a famous and successful effort to forcibly free a runaway, Charles Nalle, from the custody of slave-catchers.  Harriet Tubman, who happened to be in the area, took a leading role in breaking Nalle out of jail in an 1860 episode which gained national attention and inflamed secessionist sentiment just before the Civil War.

Plaque Commemorating the 1860 rescue   of Charles Nalle on State Street in Troy

Amsterdam was also an active center, with shoemaker Chandler Barrett providing refuge. People in a number of very rural Mongomery County hamlets, including Ford’s Bush, Fonda’s Bush and Ames, are said to have sheltered fugitives and helped them on their way.

 Engraving of the Erie Canal at Little Falls, 1839










The fugitives probably made most of the journey on foot. The Erie Canal, opened in 1825, was possibly used but canal boats were mule-drawn and proceeded at no more than a walking pace. 

The world’s first regularly scheduled steam railroad had opened between Schenectady and Albany in  1831 and within ten years it was possible to travel all the way to Niagara by train, and many fugitives seem to have used the railroad.  However, the influx of southern slave-catchers after 1852 probably drove many  fugitives back to foot travel, possibly through rural regions far from the main travel routes of the Mohawk Valley. Buckley mentions the role of Zenas Brockett, whose farm was in Manheim, and that farm becomes a destination in mentioned in the story.

It is certainly safe to assume that many tense moments occurred in and near Little Falls as fugitives were secretly moved from one refuge to another.  Resisting slavery in this way became a federal felony in 1852 and the risks to liberty and reputation were high; it is not surprising that little to no record of such resistance has been passed down.  The feelings of Northern whites about slavery were divided, with abolitionism a minority view throughout the 1850s.  The Ladies Aid Society of Little Falls might organize an ice cream social to benefit the AME Zion church, as they did according to Buckley, but if leading citizens like Arphaxad Loomis directly assisted in hiding fugitives, they might well have concealed their violations of  law.

Arphaxad Loomis in later life

And if slave-catchers from the South mysteriously vanished in Little Falls, as they do in this story, their disappearance might well have been concealed by the strongly anti-slavery political leaders of the village.

Greater Love can be purchased exclusively on Kindle for $.99.

Recommended reading:

Unique Place, Diverse People; The Social and Political History of Little Falls, New York by Richard Buckley:

Available at the Little Falls Historical Society, 39 South Ann Street, Little Falls NY 13365


The Rev. J.W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman, a Narrative of Real Life by Jermain Wesley Loguen

If I were a terrorist, I'd go shopping for a prepaid cellphone

 A more concise version of this essay was published in today's Albany Times Union as A Huge Gap in Our Security

Returning from a visit to Texas last month, I was called aside for some further attention at the Austin-Bergstrom airport. Perhaps the scanner revealed some anomaly of which I was unaware or maybe a mysterious algorithm randomly selects those to be singled out for more intensive scrutiny. Whatever the reason, I was patted down and my hands were tested for explosive residue.  

I am not complaining. I was in Manhattan on 9/11 and have no problem with TSA agents looking at every airline passenger, no matter how innocent he or she appears, as a possible terrorist.  But the experience got me thinking. If I were actually a terrorist, wouldn’t I know enough not to smuggle a weapon onto a plane at this point in history? Would I really be walking into a security checkpoint laden down with guns and bombs?

I certainly wouldn’t think I could show up at an airport with four friends carrying boxcutters and buy first class tickets with cash.  And I wouldn’t think I could conceal a bomb in my shoe like Richard Reid did on a Paris-Miami flight in 2001 nor in my underwear like Umar Abdulmutallab did on Christmas Day, 2009.  

Another thing I would not do is to plot any attacks with fast-talking strangers who promise to fix me up with a bomb or a missile.  Even if I am not the smartest would-be terrorist here in the Hudson Valley, I would have heard about the FBI schemes that entrapped an Albany imam in 2004 and four Newburgh muslims in 2009. Whatever the strength of these cases, (and both have been called into doubt) at the very least such obvious stings mean that serious terrorists are not going to take a chance on working with people who just show up out of nowhere.

 

I would want to talk and text with people I can really trust, either here in the US or overseas, who could help me to come up with a plot so horrific that the FBI hasn’t even imagined it. I’d need to talk with experts in this field, people whom I could completely trust. These might be relatives or friends I grew up with. I wouldn’t be stupid enough to contact such people with the Sprint phone for which I just signed a new two year contract. Nor would I use my own laptop to exchange friendly emails with well-known terrorist supporters like Anwar Al-Awlaki, as Major Nidal Hasan did before massacring 13 of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood. 

 

Thanks to Edward Snowden’s revelations, I would now know with absolute certainty that any electronic communication will be visible to my enemies at the NSA and CIA.  But of course, I was already 99% certain of this. 

 

 Jax and Clay rely on their prepaids

So there would be only one safe way for me and my America-hating friends to plan our next attack. We’d go to any one of several stores and check out the selection of prepaid cell phones. We’ve seen Law & Order and The Wire so we know that prepaids are ideal for any criminal enterprise. To be extra safe, we’ll buy a batch and throw them away after a single use. That way, even if the NSA picks up our terrorist chatter, they won’t be able to pin us down. 

The only problem is deciding which phones to buy.  The $59 Verizon at Walmart looks good and has the best network. We also like the AT&T GoPhone at Best Buy. That one offers a $10 International Feature package which gives each of us 250 minutes of international calling for 30 days. That should cover any last minute coordination with allies dodging drones over in Yemen or Pakistan.

No need to attract attention with multiple purchases. The smart move would be to buy a variety of brands in several stores: a BoostMobile and a TracPhone in a nearby mall, a couple of T-mobiles at a 7-11udsonHudsponH, a Verizon 4G LTE Mobile Hotpsot and a few more Netphones at a Walmart Supercenter on the other side of town.

By now I’ve convinced myself that real terrorists will have no trouble evading the multi-billion dollar US surveillance industry. But if that’s true, why haven’t our elected leaders done something about it? 

The Times Square bomber used a prepaid

Well, it turns out that Senator Schumer and Texas Republican John Cornyn did do something right after the 2010 arrest of Times Square bomber Faisal Shazad.  I was not surprised that it was Schumer who first took such action. He is my senator and I have long been impressed by his unflagging energy and attention to in-state needs, even if I have differed with him on other issues. And the fact that he partnered with one of the Senate’s most conservative members is also in keeping with his very pragmatic style.

 

  Senator Schumer had the right idea in 2010

On May 26, 2010 the two senators proposed the first-ever federal law requiring that buyers’ identities be recorded for all prepaid phones and SIM cards. In their press release Schumer and Cornyn pointed out that drug dealers, financial criminals and the 9-11 hijackers had all used prepaids, and that countries ranging from Germany to Indonesia already required registration for such phones. 

The linking of Shazad to a prepaid was a lucky break. He used a prepaid to buy the vehicle he tried to blow up in Times Square and evidently used the same phone to call family in Pakistan. If he had thrown away the phone after a single use, as Jax and Clay do on Sons of Anarchy, this link could not have been made. Even so, the bill addressed a real weakness in the fight against terrorism. 

But Schumer and Cornyn’s Senate Bill 3427 died quietly in the obscure Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee and never came to a vote. And three years later, prepaids are selling better than ever.

Why that happened I leave to your imagination. An unwillingness to inconvenience innocent people who rely on prepaid phones? A respect for journalists who use such phones to communicate with sources? A sympathy with secret lovers who want to avoid discovery?

A more likely reason for the quiet death of Senate Bill 3427 can be found in the corporate logos found on the array of prepaids at Walmart and other outlets. Prepaid cellphones and internet devices are a major growth sector for Verizon, AT&T and other companies as people’s income and credit ratings fall, and as pay phones vanish from our public places. And as a helpful clerk at Walmart told me, they are a real bargain and do away with the nuisance of signing up for long term contracts. She told me she was going to switch to a prepaid as soon as her Verizon contract expired.

If such phones are a major growth sector, does this mean that Verizon or AT&T lobbyists would oppose such a bill? Did they, in fact, make sure that SB 3427 never even came to a vote in committee? Would such minimal record-keeping be a significant enough expense for the corporations to block the bill? Well, I have made  inquiries to Senator Schumer’s office trying to find out why the bill died and look forward to their response. 

If SB3427 were ever meant to be taken seriously, it is odd that no companion bill was introduced in the House. Rep. Peter King, for one, would probably be happy to do a similar bipartisan sponsorship with any number of Democrats, and he’s on good terms with Senator Schumer. Our local congressmen Republican  Chris Gibson and Democrat Paul Tonko are also very good on bipartisan initiatives.But I can find no evidence that Schumer and Cornyn ever tried to promote such a House bill on prepaids. 

And why, after the fanfare of an announcement and joint press release by Schumer and Cornyn on May 10, 2010 was 3427 sent to such an obscure committee as Commerce, Science and Transportation? Both Cornyn and Schumer are on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security where they could have argued for their bill and neither are on the committee where it was sent.

As to Faisal Shazad, the would-be Times Square bomber whose arrest prompted Schumer’s and Cornyn’s call to arms – He is still referenced on Schumer’s site but only as the motivation for other initiatives by the senator which I support, such as a more reasonable allotment of Homeland Security funds to NYC and additional funding for port security. His only action on phones since 3427 died, however, was a May 2012 bill making it a federal crime to tamper with the registry of stolen phones. Admirable, but why is this more critical than depriving terrorists of an essential communications tool?

Senator Cornyn has also done good work along similar lines: more funding for port security in Texas, better training for first responders. Nothing on prepaid cellphones, though, or other easy ways to avoid attention from the NSA.

And after three years, the sale of prepaids may be on the verge of overtaking traditional contract-based phones. Prices are dropping and services increasing. Verizon’s 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot is selling well and offers an excellent option for making connections with foreign terrorists far from prying eyes and ears. And if you can afford to throw away the $99 device after a single use, so much the better.

As I said earlier, I am quite willing to accept a loss of privacy, as at airports, when it has a real chance of keeping us safer. What I fail to understand is why our elected leaders do not close this obvious gap in our national security. And, in fact, seem to be running as fast as possible away from any attempt to deal with the problem.