Fulton County Museum

05/27/2026

Fulton County in 50 Stories: Jail Break of 1929

In January 1929, Raymond Clemons of Gloversville and Joseph Neparty of Schenectady were being held at the Fulton County Jail for burglary. Neparty, a 39-year-old described as 5’11” with brown eyes, black hair, and a “stubby mustache,” had just been brought to Johnstown on a bench warrant after a 12 month stint in the Montgomery County Jail for unlawful entry and chicken theft. Clemons was 27 years old, 5’7″, with a “reddish complexion, dark reddish hair, and brown eyes.” He and his brother Ernest were indicted for 3rd degree burglary: they stole 18 chickens (valued at $50) from Daniel Smith in Ephratah. (Imagining the ruckus 18 chickens must have made, its no wonder they were caught.) This wasn’t their first rodeo, as both men had priors and had served sentences at Clinton (Neparty for burglary in 1918) and Auburn (Clemons for arson in 1921).

It must have been bitterly cold on the night of January 4, 1929, when Clemons and Neparty managed to escape from the Fulton County Jail.

Their absence was discovered at 7:30 the next morning by Daniel Gould, the turnkey at the jail, when he went to arrange for the prisoners’ breakfast. The cell lock was broken and a bar on the window had been sawed away. In a stroke of genius that Ferris Bueller would be proud of, Clemons even arranged his blankets so it looked like he was still underneath them during the last round made at 11:00 the night before.

The men had been assigned to cells three and four on the first floor. It was believed that Clemons hid in an unused cell in the darkness. The Morning Herald reported: “The job was so quietly completed that despite the jail office being close by, no sound was heard.” Fellow inmates Michael Lynch and Ervin E. Hall hadn’t even heard a sound. The escapees left behind eight hacksaw blades, soap, a bunk chain, and a metal brace from one of the heating pipes – the tools of their escape act. They were believed to have acted alone (though Isabelle Clemons, Raymond’s mother, was later suspected of having been the one to smuggle the hacksaws into the jail).

At some point, Clemons was caught and returned to the jail while Neparty remained at large. It was discovered that Clemons hid out at Herbert Getman’s, who was fined $500 for his role in harboring the criminal. But Clemons wasn’t content to await his fate and again escaped on February 26th. He was recaptured within hours near the Fairview Farm. The authorities were baffled. How had Clemons managed to get out once, let alone a second time within five weeks? The locks on the cells were the same type used at state prisons like Sing-Sing and Dannemora. They used a double-lock system, with the cell and cell corridor locking at the same time with one mechanism. The police assumed that someone had slipped, that proper care wasn’t taken while securing the prisoners. The sheriff, several officials, and a committee from the Board of Supervisors gathered at the jail to examine the problem.

For his part, Clemons refused to say how he did it. He taunted them, flippantly remarking that he could get out at anytime he wanted. The police, however, didn’t believe him, making disparaging statements about the inmate’s skills. Confronted with the insults, Clemons offered a deal: “I’ll bet you a hundred dollars I can unlock that cell corridor door in an hour or an hour and a half.” Clerk Dunkel refused the wager, but added that he would gift Clemons $5 if he managed to break out while they observed. Clemons replied, “I need that five bucks. Give me them things I had this morning and I’ll take your five.”

After ten minutes of trying, no progress had been made and the onlookers began to jeer at Clemons. Annoyed, he explained that the nails they had given him were too dull. He reached into his pocket and pulled out five more pieces of equipment, most likely leaving the authorities with a little bit of egg on their faces. In five minutes, he had the door open. It’s easy to imagine the group of onlookers watching, mouths agape, amazed at the quick work Clemons made with the lock. Feeling confident now, Clemons went on: “Give me the five. For $10 more, I’ll unlock the cell door in three minutes, and for another $10 I’ll unlock that outside door and be out of here in five minutes.”

Of course, the onlookers refused this newest challenge. Clemons told them how he blocked the locking mechanism on his cell door and had “walked around this place anytime I wanted to.” Eventually, the whole process of the second escape was explained. A small piece of pipe from the sink to the sink trap wasn’t soldered on and easily snatched by Clemons to pry a bar off the window. This time, he had Ervin Hall as his partner-in-crime. The men realized they wouldn’t have enough room to fit through the space they made, so they replaced the bar and the pipe. At this point, Hall had gotten cold feet and returned to his cell – hey, at least he tried! Clemons wasn’t so easily deterred; he hid in a deep window at the end of the hallway and when Gould brought in the breakfast, he slipped out through the corridor.

The sheriff made him empty his pockets, wear overalls, and put him in a new cell. Clemons wouldn’t reveal where he kept getting his tools but he admitted he hid them in his mattress, which was routinely searched.

Clemons was sentenced to ten years of hard labor at Dannemora. The 1930 census listed him as working in the prison cotton shop. He was still listed as an inmate there on the 1940 census, but his whereabouts after his release was unknown.

Joseph Neparty remained at-large while his prison break pal languished away in state prison. In June 1939, he was arrested in Newark, NJ for a charge involving prostitution. District Attorney Bernard Kearney and Sheriff Frank Steenburgh sent warrants to Newark to extradite him after he served his sentence at Trenton. Steenburgh, who was a deputy at the time of Clemons’ and Neparty’s escape and had participated in the search, was the only one who had first-hand experience with the old case. In 1941, after finishing his sentence in Jersey, Neparty was picked up by Sheriff Eugene Smith and brought back to NY. Despite the best efforts of his attorney – who claimed Neparty simply walked out because the doors to the jail were already open – he was found guilty and sentenced to 2 – 2.5 years at Clinton Prison.

05/20/2026

Fulton County in 50 Stories: The Irish Settlement

After the American Revolution, Tryon County became Montgomery County. New waves of immigrants came through, especially a large contingent from New England who established the settlement of Kingsboro in what would eventually become the city of Gloversville. As the glove and tanning industry grew, people flocked to the area, drawn by the promise of steady work. The mid-19th century saw a large number of Irish immigrants settle not in the cities of Gloversville or Johnstown, but in a small rural commune in the Town of Oppenheim. Historians Daniel J. Casey and F. Daniel Larkin found that the Irish contributed significantly to the development of rural American culture. In the 1840s and 50s, Irish immigrant families began buying land in western Fulton County. This was still mostly forested land that hadn’t been cleared.

Most of the seven “first families” to settle in the area came from Ulster, specifically Tyrone and Donegal, via Philadelphia. Their surnames were Fitzpatrick, Fitzgerald, Starr, Tomney, Gleason, Donnely, and Ward. They were followed by family members and neighbors, who would purchase subdivided lots from the larger tracts owned by the original settlers. The new arrivals isolated themselves from their non-Irish neighbors, attempting to recreate life in rural Ireland with this insular community that became known as the Irish Settlement. The first two generations married within the settlement.

By 1875, the Irish community in western Fulton County was well-established. It was a primarily agricultural settlement; their farms grew potatoes and other vegetables, buckwheat, oats, and hay. These were harvested for consumption as well as for market. There was a small-scale dairying industry, as well as sheep, pigs, hens, and geese. Families supplemented their diets and incomes by hunting and fishing and selling skins and pelts. The women carded and spun wool from their sheep, which was picked up by Eli Yanney, who owned a mill in nearby Ephratah where the yarn was used to make mittens.

Other major industries included logging, which the men had been engaged with from the start out of necessity to clear the land. The area was rich with hemlock trees, and that bark was needed for tanning hides. The hemlock contained the tannins necessary for the process, and so the bark was sold to nearby tanneries like LaDue’s tannery at Dolgeville. In the wintertime, men of the settlement would go to Stewart’s Landing for seasonal work. The families traded in shops in Lasselsville and Middlesprite and merchants also traveled to the settlement to conduct business.
The eastern side of the settlement was served by three shops, two churches (Methodist and Union), a hotel, and a cheese factory. The western part had a shop, sawmill, butter tub factory, and a dozen dwelling houses. The community also had its own school, called the Union Star School. Teachers often came from nearby towns and boarded with families while school was in session. In 1875, St. Bridget’s Catholic Church and cemetery were built. It was an out-mission of St. Mary’s in Little Falls. The settlement itself had about 20 families, but the church also served 40 or more families from a larger area. St. Bridget’s was one of the earliest Catholic churches in the county. Larkin and Casey described the settlement as “an oasis of Irish Roman Catholics occupying tracts of loamy scrubland in a district otherwise German and English Protestant.”

The church served as an epicenter of religious and social life for the community. Holidays and funerals were large community gatherings. Ceilis were common and included dancing, music, games, letter-reading, story-telling, and local gossip. Later events also included baseball and quilting.

But the community was not to last. Younger generations who had been born in America were marrying outside of the community and seeking opportunities in nearby Herkimer, Little Falls, St. Johnsville, and other cities and towns in the Mohawk Valley. Lumbering became less profitable. Tanneries began substituting hemlock bark with new chemical methods for tanning. Farming was becoming more competitive with westward expansion. In 1900, the mission at St. Bridget’s was transferred to St. Patrick’s in St. Johnsville. The parish was eventually dissolved in the 1930s and the building torn down. The cemetery, with its 45 burials, remained behind.

Today, all that’s physically left of the settlement are some stone foundations, ditches, and the cemetery, along with Irish Settlement Road.

05/15/2026

Once again the weather has turned out in favor of the FCHS Ice Cream Social & History Fair! Join us from 6-8 for history, ice cream, and live music!

05/13/2026

Fulton County in 50 Stories: The Mountain Lake Railroad Tragedy

The history of the Mountain Lake Electric Railroad that ran from Gloversville to Bleecker will always be dominated by the disastrous crash on July 4, 1902. A day of holiday merry-making ended in a tragedy resulting in multiple injuries and loss of life. We're often asked for information about this occurrence. The museum also has in its collection items related to the railroad and the accident.

In March 1896, the newspaper announced that a company had been formed to build a railroad “up the mountain,” from Gloversville to Mountain Lake. Those involved were “among the prominent representatives of the largest business interests in this city and Johnstown, and are fully possessed of the energy and enterprise which is necessary for the successful completion and operation of the new road.”

It was not uncommon for railroads to create their own destinations. Not only did it encourage people to take the train and spend money on the fare, but once they arrived at these destinations, they spent money on food and entertainment. These dollars would also go to the enterprising railroad company who dreamed up and built the spot. The FJ&G RR, for example, constructed Sacandaga Park, which served tens of thousands of guests every summer and became known as the “Coney Island of the North.”

The Mountain Lake rail began at the corner of Main and Fulton in Gloversville. The ride up promised a view of the Catskill Mountains to the south and the mountains of Massachusetts and Vermont to the east, “while the general view of the Mohawk Valley and surrounding country furnishes a beautiful panorama.” The train carried riders directly to the back of the newly built Mountain Lake Hotel. It ran four double truck open cars with two GE motors of 100 horsepower each. The cars ran until 10pm each night. The Mountain Lake RR Company also owned a stone quarry, which the new rail would service. The quarry included good mountain stone and polishing marble, and plans were being discussed to connect the FJ&G RR for this purpose.

The newly constructed Mountain Lake Hotel offered live entertainment and dancing and special dinners – promising a perfect little getaway from the city not only for locals but for travelers from all over New York State.

On July 4, 1902, the park at Mountain Lake on Bleecker Mountain was packed. About 1,600 people purchased tickets for the electric trolley that would bring merry-makers up the mountain for a day of fun and relaxation. The last trolleys usually left at 10pm, but because of the scheduled fireworks, the park was open a bit later and there was a much larger crowd still at the lake by the time the display was over. A crowd of 300-400 people waited for a ride back to Gloversville.

Two cars, #1 and #5, carrying a total of 130 passengers, started their trip down the mountain five minutes apart. Car #1 left first, and on its way down it met and passed Car #4 on its way back to the resort. The conductor on Car #1, James Cameron, should have told the passing car that another was not far behind them, but he forgot. So, when Car #4 met the second car coming down the mountain, it had to back up to a siding to let #5 pass. This caused a delay and, possibly trying to make up time, Car #5 came careening down the mountain at a high rate of speed. There on the tracks in the darkness ahead of it was Car #1. Motorman on #5, William Dodge, tried to throw on the brakes (the cars were not equipped with any emergency braking system). Still, the car barreled forward. In a last-ditch attempt to avoid a collision, Dodge threw the car’s motors in reverse, blowing out the breakers in the power-house.

In the dark, warm summer night, Car #5 crashed into the back of Car #1.

The two cars continued rapidly down the track at an estimated speed of 60 MPH. Conductor Cameron and a passenger on #1 tried to activate the hand-brakes. They held, but wheels locked as the heavier Car #5 continued to push down the mountain. They were quickly approaching an S-curve at the bottom of the hill. A few passengers jumped, escaping with only minor injuries. But as the first car reached the curve, it flew off the tracks and landed on its side. During the time it was airborne, several of the passengers were thrown out of the open-air trolley and were, sadly, crushed as the car landed on top of them. Car #5 also left the tracks, but remained upright.

It took nearly two hours for power to be restored and help to arrive. Doctors and nurses from Nathan Littauer Hospital loaded the injured passengers into a car. Those who lived nearby rushed to the scene to do what they could.

A total of 14 people – 12 passengers and 2 railroad employees – died as a result of the crash, and many more sustained injuries.

An unsung hero in this tragedy was 17-year-old F. Willi Berghoff, who was thrown from one of the cars but otherwise uninjured. Having the foresight to prevent the accident from becoming even worse, he ran up the tracks in the dark and wildly waved his hat, stopping the next incoming car from driving straight into the accident.

The newspaper described the scene of the crash: “The mental torture was something terrible, and to those who were penned up in the charnel place, with the dead underneath them and the wounded among them, with no lights to show them the awful state of affairs, and the shrieks and groans of the injured and the ominous silence of the people under the car and in the creek, it is something which no lifetime will ever make them forget.”

An investigation led by Coroner Robert Palmer and District Attorney Egelston ultimately found the Mountain Lake Railroad Company hired incompetent motormen. An article published in the Rome Sentinel read: “The motorman was killed in the accident, so the officials of the company must alone bear the charges of negligence . . . The financial condition of the Mountain Lake Railroad Company is such that neither the families of the dead victims of the wreck nor the injured passengers who survive can secure what it would seem they are entitled to in the way of damages, and perhaps no one will ever be criminally punished because of the awful tragedy.”

The railroad company never recovered from the tragic accident and loss of life that occurred on that 4th of July night. The FJ&G purchased the line in 1904 and renamed it the Adirondack Lakes Traction Co. The Mountain Lake Hotel remained in operation, but it was struck by lightning in the early morning hours of August 4, 1908 and burned to the ground. The 14 guests who were staying there at the time all escaped uninjured. A decade later, the FJ&G abandoned the line and it was sold for scrap.

Today, the 1902 disaster is the Mountain Lake Railroad’s legacy. It is the most known fact about the historic railroad. The Fulton County Historical Society’s permanent railroad exhibit includes a section on the Mountain Lake line and its fate.

05/12/2026

We’re getting ready to welcome you to the FCHS Ice Cream Social & History Fair on Friday!

05/06/2026

Fulton County in 50 Stories: Dorothy Burney Richards

Dorothy Richards was born on April 7, 1894 in Little Falls, NY. She married forester Allison “Al” Richards in 1920, a job which took the couple all over NYS and Canada. In 1930, the couple returned to Little Falls and purchased an office supply firm. They also bought and restored a dilapidated cottage at the edge of the Adirondack Mountains.

The NYS DEC was working to restore the beaver population in the Adirondacks, which was locally extinct due to over-trapping. In 1935, Al requested that the DEC release a pair of beavers near their cottage on Littlesprite Creek in Fulton County.

Dorothy became fascinated with them. She spent hours observing them. Though she had no formal scientific training, Dorothy studied conservationists like Archibald Stansfeld Belaney and John Muir. After purchasing more land to establish a nature sanctuary, Dorothy requested permission to keep beavers in her home. It was the first such permit issued in the state.

Al passed away in 1963 and Dorothy continued the Beaversprite sanctuary. Known as the “Beaver Woman,” she was the subject of a 1972 CBS documentary, appeared on NBC, was featured in the “Ranger Rick” magazine, and served as the Director of Defenders of Wildlife from 1948-76. She was part of the group that successfully campaigned for the beaver to become the official state animal in 1975. Dorothy published her autobiography in 1977.

Dorothy donated the property to the Florence Waring Erdman Trust but remained in the cottage until her death in 1985. The trust closed Beaversprite to the public despite instructions in Dorothy’s will. The Friends of Beaversprite was formed to save the organization. Supporters included Bob Barker and Doris Day. In 1989, the group won a lawsuit against the trust and the sanctuary’s manager Larry B. Watkins. The Utica Zoo acquired the property in 2020 and reopened as Beaversprite Nature Center. International Beaver Day is celebrated annually on April 7th, Dorothy’s birthday.

We'll be welcoming staff from Beaversprite this July as part of our Hands on History for Kids series, so keep an eye out!

05/01/2026

Did you catch us this morning on NEWS10 In Your Town? You can watch our clip below, as well as all the other wonderful Gloversville businesses and organizations that were featured.

NEWS10 In Your Town LIVE: Fulton County Historical Society

04/29/2026

We're taking a short break from the Fulton County in 50 Stories series this week because we want to hear from YOU! Did you experience the Bicentennial celebrations in 1976? Do you remember any family trips to historic sites? Did you go to Albany to see the Freedom Train or to Fonda to check out the Bicentennial Barge? Did your family purchase Bicentennial-branded souvenirs? Comment below with your memories of the era - we would love to hear them!

11/07/2025

Thank you to the The Leader-Herald Online for this nice piece on our Bowling for History Fundraiser (tomorrow) and the “Women of the Saratoga Campaign” program (Wednesday)!

https://www.dailygazette.com/leader_herald/news/fulton-county-historical-society-hosting-pair-of-events/article_a9192b1b-95c2-4acd-b622-fc6b302bf99e.html

GLOVERSVILLE — The Fulton County Historical Society will host a pair of events next week.

10/28/2025

Just over a week until our Bowling for History fundraiser with Arterial Lanes! Have you signed up yet?