Creative History

  Across the Hudson River from West Point Military Academy at a place called Garrison’s Landing sits a lonely canoe on the frigid night of December 23, 1826. The canoe had been pre-placed, hidden among some scrub-brush and high weeds, along the frozen banks of the Hudson earlier in the week. Three cadets, William R. Burnley of Alabama, Alexander J. Center of New York and Samuel A. Roberts also of Alabama, quietly lug two gallon size barrels of whiskey and place them in the waiting canoe in the dead of night.   Originally that night, after a drinking binge at a place called Martin’s Tavern, the off-duty cadets had planned to land an even bigger cache of up to 4 gallons of whiskey, but after their drunken garrulous behavior nearly caused them to come to blows with the proprietor of the tavern over the bartering price of the booze, the cadets had been forced to pay a hefty sum for the two barrels that they were lucky enough to obtain.   This night, and th...

  “You just can’t imagine what it was like.  All of a sudden I saw Santa Claus!  I couldn’t believe my eyes...it was a dream come true!” - Recollection of a man in his 90’s on first seeing Santa recorded in 1976 It is December of 1890. Packed trains from Boston, Hartford, Providence--even from as far away as New York City--are piling into the small station in Brockton, Massachusetts. Brockton is an industrial, working class city located south of Boston in Plymouth County.  In the future this rough and tumble blue collar town will become famous as the home of heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano, but in December of 1890 it has been suddenly put on the map as the home of Santa Claus! Each day hundreds of children and their parents walk down Main Street in Brockton, Massachusetts and head straight for Edgar’s Department Store. Edgar’s Department Store is owned by wealthy local philanthropist and entrepreneur James Edgar, who earlier that year had travele...