Montgomery County politics
was rough during late 1800s
Postmaster selection showed dealing
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette 5-21-05
In 1889, political pundits didn’t need talk radio and the Internet to get in their licks when one of the burning issues in Montgomery County was the appointment of a postmaster in Fort Plain.
Amsterdam’s John Sanford was the area’s Republican Congressman, elected in 1888 in a campaign against Democrat Zerah Westbrook. Judge Westbrook went on to be mayor of Amsterdam a decade later. John Sanford left Congress in 1892 and was prominent in the carpet industry and horse racing until his death in 1939.
The Sanford name was well established in 1889. John Sanford’s grandfather—also named John Sanford--was the first of the family to get involved in the carpet industry and the first to serve in Congress, from 1841 to 1843. In 1889, Congressman Sanford’s father, Stephen, was at the helm of the family carpet mills. Stephen Sanford also had served in Congress, in 1869 and 1870. According to historian Hugh Donlon, Stephen Sanford did not enjoy Washington, saying, “It is a thankless job to work for the public and I have had enough of it.”
Amsterdam’s Democratic newspaper in 1889 was the Morning Sentinel, edited by George H. Loadwick who was “aggressively progressive,” according to historian Washington Frothingham. Ironically, the Republican paper was William J. Kline’s Democrat. Kline had purchased the paper if not the political philosophy in 1879. In later years, Kline purchased the Recorder.
“The appointment of William Yerdon as postmaster at Fort Plain, under the circumstances, will be in strict accord with the sentiment of boodle as exemplified by the Republican party in the late campaign,” wrote the Morning Sentinel in an April 6th, 1889 editorial. “It is stated that Congressman Sanford has endorsed Yerdon, who virtually bought the resignation of the Democratic incumbent. This is one of those cases where (Republican) President (Benjamin) Harrison would be justified in exercising his high prerogative independent of the recommendation of a congressman, and we are surprised to know that Neighbor Sanford has voluntarily become a party to a trick so palpably wicked. Yerdon ought to get left.”
Further down the editorial page, the Morning Sentinel looked back at the election that sent Sanford to Congress, charging that a person identified as “our little friend down at the fountain” tried to destroy the personal character of Westbrook, the Democratic nominee, by employing a Utica newspaper man who supposedly found that Westbrook once defrauded a Civil War veteran. “Filthy work,” wrote the Sentinel. The editorial reported that the Utica newspaperman, Harry Devendorf, had recanted his allegation.
Who was “our little friend down at the fountain?” Was it one of the Sanfords or perhaps the editor of the rival paper?
The other side of the story can be checked on Frank Yunker’s database of headlines from the Democrat, www.mohawkvalleyweb.com
The Democrat (remember this was the Republican paper) referred to Westbrook in 1888 as “Judas” Westbrook in a headline about his nomination as the Democratic Congressional candidate at a convention in Schenectady. The Republicans, meeting in Fonda, nominated Sanford. The headline for each candidate noted that after the vote, the candidate was “serenaded in the evening.”
MORE FROM THE 1889 SENTINEL
The 1889 Sentinel featured some unusual advertisers, including Becker’s Truss Room at 11 Market Street in Amsterdam, with the latest in “abdominal supporters, elastic stockings and rubber bandages.” J.W. Snyder’s grocery on Kimball Street advertised it had a telephone.
Amsterdam was also awaiting arrival of “the handsomest train” in the country if not the world, the New York and Chicago Flyer.
The Sentinel reported, “These cars were fluted in the most elegant manner possible throughout, and equipped with gas lighting apparatus and the latest improvement in running gear, the twelve-wheeled trucks having a new Westinghouse brake to each wheel.”
The train was to leave New York City at 9:50 a.m. and arrive in Amsterdam at 2 p.m. That’s ten minutes faster than the scheduled time for such a trip today, according to an Amtrak timetable!
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Hear fascinating stories and phone calls about Mohawk Valley history every Tuesday morning from 7:40 – 8:00 a.m. and 9:35 – 10:00 a.m. on The Bob Cudmore Show, AM 1570 WVTL radio, Amsterdam. Listen online at www.1570wvtl.com
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