Fort Plain Museum courts history buffs’ favor

By Linda Kellett, Courier-Standard-Enterprise News Staff

FORT PLAIN — Steeped in local history and decked out in its holiday
finest, the Fort Plain Museum was the gathering place for colonial-
and Revolutionary War-era musicians, craftsman, sutlers, writers and
history buffs wishing to immerse themselves in the past the first
Saturday of December.

Among those present for the annual Christmas celebration were Albany
resident Ellen Wetterau and Denis Zunon. Wetterau is the niece of
longtime museum board members and volunteers Charlotte, Glenadore and
Doris Wetterau, all of whom have passed away.

“We come back every now and again,” she said. “I’ve always been
interested in local history. I think it was my aunts who instilled [an
interest in] family history and genealogy, she said.

Since the time that her aunts were last involved with the museum, she
said she has noticed that some things have been rearranged and new
exhibits have been added.

Among the more recent acquisitions, for example, is a collection of
native American artifacts collected by Canajoharie resident William J.
Klinkhardt and donated to the museum last month.

Fred Chambers, secretary of the Fort Plain Museum Board of Trustees,
said one of the displays of arrowheads and other projectiles is
arranged mosaic-style to tell the Iroquois creation story. Among the
images that can be made out are the sun, a falling woman and a turtle.

Early this year, Tom Porter, the founder, spiritual leader and
spokesperson for the native American community of Kanatsioahareke in
Yosts, related the symbolic tale about a world among the stars, a tree
with every kind of fruit, and a pregnant woman who fell through a hole
at the tree’s base to a water-covered earth, where land was created on
the shell of a sea turtle.

Others with an interest in local history included Forestport resident
George Gydeson, the president of the Oriskany Battle Chapter Sons of
the American Revolution, who had an ancestor stationed at the
Revolutionary War fort prior to the Clinton-Sullivan Campaign, and
Margreet and Williem Monster of Northville, who restored the Sacandaga
Train Station and have an interest in historic preservation.

-- 
Bob Sullivan
Schenectady Digital History Archive
<http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/>
Schenectady County (NY) Public Library