Tuesday, August 29, 1916

Eight year old Thomas Smith of 270 Stow Avenue is Troy’s second fatality of the statewide polio epidemic, The Record reports.

The Collar City had held out against infantile paralysis for quite a while, but Benjamin Streichman of Division Street became Troy’s first victim yesterday. Smith, the son of Thomas J. Smith, takes ill this morning. This evening’s edition reports that his illness “appeared to be infantile paralysis.” Tomorrow’s paper reports that Smith dies before nightfall today.

Before the two deaths, the city had already postponed the start of the public school year until September 25. Organizers of the celebration for the centennial of the city charter have postponed their event, which was to include a children’s parade, until next year. The polio epidemic has killed just over 2,000 people in New York State, most of them in New York City.

Now, with death in the air, the Women’s Civic League has canceled its annual school garden exhibit at City Hall. Prizes will still be awarded for the best student flower and vegetable gardens, but rather than have children bring samples to City Hall and gather together for an award ceremony, judges will visit the homes of student gardeners to determine this year’s winners.

RENSSELAER FAIR. Despite the grim news from Troy, attendance for the opening day of the annual fair of the Rensselaer County Agricultural and Horticultural Society is “very encouraging.

Opening day is dedicated to veterans of the Civil War and Spanish-American war. The local veterans association holds its business meeting at the fairground this morning after arriving via auto parade from the county court house.

“The men of the war of ’61-’65 were not very many in number,” our reporter observes, “their reduced ranks showing how plainly the once-mighty host is passing away.” In the last two years, since a 1914 reunion, 62 local Civil War veterans have passed away.

Addressing the veterans, Frederick E. Draper notes that “while we sit here, part of another generation is gathered beneath the flag in arms.” The Troy-based Second New York Infantry regiment, including approximately 500 soldiers from the Collar City, is currently on border-patrol duty in Mission TX.

“Their service may be long and arduous and to great purpose; it may be short and not to great purpose. That we do not know. The point is that the call to arms [has sounded] again in their day and Rensselaer County, as has happened so many times before, has answered ‘here’ with the same generosity of numbers that to our everlasting credit has always been characteristic of the county.”

– Kevin Gilbert