African American histories
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, 02-25-17
An African American Amsterdam barber, Robert A. Jackson, likely played a role in the Underground Railroad before the Civil War. According to Montgomery County historian Kelly Farquhar, Jackson’s barber shop was on an upper floor at 69 East Main Street near Chandler Bartlett’s shoe store that is believed to have been a shelter for freedom seekers.
After the Civil War, Jackson was active politically. He attended conventions of black Republicans. He also belonged to a fraternal group called the Colored Masons, according to research by historian Christopher Philippo .
Jackson delivered a rousing speech in support of Republican Presidential candidate James Blaine in Canajoharie in August 1884. The event celebrated emancipation and included a parade and reading of the emancipation proclamation.
An Amsterdam newspaper reported on Jackson’s speech, “The Republicans, he said, had given (African Americans) the treatment they deserved and had done all in their power to dignify their condition, whereas the policy of the Democrats toward them has resulted only in their detriment.”
Republican Blaine narrowly lost the Presidential election that year to New York Governor Grover Cleveland. Cleveland was the first Democrat elected President since 1856.
Jackson, who lived on Charles Street in Amsterdam, died in 1893 and was buried at Green Hill Cemetery.
WAR HEROES
Bruce Anderson, an African American buried in Amsterdam, fought alongside a Canajoharie white man, Zachariah Neahr, during the battle of Fort Fisher, North Carolina in the Civil War. Anderson was among a number of blacks who enlisted in white Union regiments.
Anderson, Neahr and other survivors of a daring mission during the fighting at Fort Fisher were recommended for Congressional Medals of Honor but the paperwork was lost.
Neahr finally received his medal in the 1890s. Anderson hired a lawyer and got his medal in 1914. Anderson died in 1922 and was buried at Green Hill Cemetery.
Bruce Anderson’s grandson is believed to be Ambrose “Cowboy” Anderson, Jr. of Gloversville, a 2012 recipient of the Congressional Gold medal, the nation’s highest civilian award.
“Cowboy” Anderson earned his nickname on the streets of Gloversville as a child. He was one of the first Montfort Point Marines, an all-black unit in World War II. He fought in the battle on Iwo Jima.
There is a historical marker at Chester “Bromley” Hoke’s Mohawk Street home in Canajoharie. Born in 1847, twenty years after New York abolished slavery, Hoke volunteered for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, one of the first black units in the Civil War. After the war, he was a porter at the Nellis Hotel. He died in 1913.
Anthony “Dixie” Veal, who escaped from slavery at a Georgia plantation, joined up with New York State troops marching through Georgia in the Civil War.
Veal later became the well-known porter at Amsterdam’s Hotel Warner. Veal once convinced the owners of the city’s Opera House not to go on stage with an insulting black face impersonation of him. He suffered from mental illness and died in 1904.
SPORTS
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson’s grandfather was a high school basketball star in Amsterdam. Harrison Wilson, Jr. went on to be president of Norfolk State University, a historically black institution in Virginia, from 1975 to 1997.
Harrison, Jr. was the son of Harrison Wilson, Sr., who relocated to Amsterdam from Kentucky in 1910.
Harrison Sr. and his wife Marguerite raised eight children. All their children pursued careers in education, law, health care, industry and sports.
According to author Michael Cinquanti, the only Amsterdam native to play or start in the National Football League is lineman Josh Beekman, an African American who played three years for the Chicago Bears.
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