100 years ago in The Record

Monday, Dec. 23, 1918

A new Ford tractor plant in Green Island takes one step closer to reality today with the apparent awarding of a building contract to a New York City firm, The Record reports. While “no official confirmation was forthcoming at the time of going to press,” multiple accounts informally indicate that the George A. Fuller construction company has won the contract to build the plant. Henry Ford met with a delegation from the Troy Chamber of Commerce in Detroit last week to discuss the project, which was first announced last summer. Green Island Chamber president Samuel N. Hutchinson tells our reporter that “he had heard the news of the awarding of the contract,” but will neither confirm or deny the news. An anonymous “prominent resident” of Troy “with municipal affairs in Green Island” states that he’s heard that “the contract involved a large sum,” but “declined to make any positive declaration.” A representative of George A. Fuller says that “the matter was in the hands of their Detroit office.” While Ford makes no official statement, “the report is accepted in certain business and official circles both here and in the county across the river as probably true.” Troy mayor Cornelius F. Burns has no more information than the other sources, but says, “I heard last week that the contract for the erection of a part of the new Ford tractor plant would probably be let any day and am not surprised to hear this has probably taken place.”

Death of Mrs. George B. Cluett

Amanda R. Cluett, widow of Cluett, Peabody founder George B. Cluett and “one of Troy’s greatest philanthropists,” dies tonight at the age of 71, The Record reports. Cluett passes away suddenly at the Pelham Manor home of her daughter, Mrs. R. Clifford Black. “When leaving Troy last week Mrs. Cluett appeared to be in splendid health,” our reporter writes, “thenews of her death during the night came as a shock to the entire community.” Born in 1847, Amanda R. Fisher moved to Troy with her uncle (her father, according to some sources), former Illinois judge Northrop J. Rockwell. She married George B. Cluett in 1867; the marriage was Cluett’s second. Mrs. Cluett was a major supporter of Samaritan Hospital and the Y.W.C. A. For the latter, she built and furnished the building at State and First streets in downtown Troy. “Throughout her life, she had shown a deep interest in the city and its development and had always been one of its greatest benefactors,” Mayor Burns recalls, “Her death is a distinct loss to the city at large.”