John Wilkinson opened a window to the history of the Schoharie Valley with his new book.
The Schoharie Valley, published and released last week by Arcadia Publishing, uses vintage, seldom-seen photos to trace Valley history from the late 1800s to the 1950s.
The book opens with a chapter on the Valley's most important industry--farming--and succeeding chapters focus on villages and hamlets, running from south to north.
At 128 pages, The Schoharie Valley contains more than 220 photos.
A Schoharie resident, Mr. Wilkinson started the project after an almost-off-the-cuff comment at a board meeting of the Schoharie Colonial Heritage Association.
SCHA President Jean Harra suggested the idea, "and I said I'd run with it," Mr. Wilkinson said.
Already well-versed in Valley history, Mr. Wilkinson contacted Arcadia, which specializes in regional photo histories.
Arcadia laid out the guidelines: Photos must be originals, scanned at 600 DPI; captions were to be no longer than 70 words.
"I bought a scanner, and everywhere I went, I had two bags, one for the scanner and one for the computer," he said.
First concentrating heavily on Schoharie and Middleburgh, Mr. Wilkinson realized that if he was to cover the Valley, he must do all of it, from Gilboa to Esperance.
Mr. Wilkinson began to assemble photos from the Old Stone Fort, town historians, smaller museums, families and others.
Families and individuals were especially helpful, including the Shauls and Barbers, Kristen Wyckoff, Kenneth and Samantha Clark, Bob Holt, Ken Jones, Bea Mattice and many others.
"Wherever I went, people would pull out photos they had," Mr. Wilkinson said.
As the project grew, he decided to start The Schoharie Valley with a chapter on farming.
"These guys worked so hard with the relatively small equipment that they had," Mr. Wilkinson said.
But collecting farm photos presented an unusual challenge.
"Farmers don't take photographs of their farms," Mr. Wilkinson said. "They're too busy farming.
"Max Shaul seemed to be the only one who systematically photographed his farm. Other photos came from people who just stopped by."
People or museums provided information about the photos' subjects, and Mr. Wilkinson researched many.
And he had help from elsewhere, too. Former Daily Gazette reporter Les Hendrix, Valley historian himself, edited the text.
"He was kind enough to beat me up," Mr. Wilkinson chuckled.
After assembling a large number of photos, he had to winnow the amount into something manageable.
The technical issues were obvious: Clarity, no scratches or tears, and able to be reproduced well.
After that, "I wanted to concentrate on what's interesting," Mr. Wilkinson said. "People doing things, something you'd talk about. Not too many landscapes."
Some of his favorites are of Schoharie's Main Street Nights in the 1930s and '40s and one from the early '50s showing kids gathered on Main Street, Schoharie, to watch one of the first TVs.
And another favorite shows men outside Barb Young's barbershop on Railroad Avenue, Middleburgh, listening to a radio and watching a scoreboard for the 1947 World Series between the Yankees and the Dodgers.
The scoreboard shows it's the sixth inning, and "because you can look up anything about baseball on the internet, I found that Joe DiMaggio had just hit a home run for the Yankees," Mr. Wilkinson said.
Starting the book in April 2011, Mr. Wilkinson had the photos and text written by August.
And then came Irene. . .
"We were told to evacuate," said Mr. Wilkinson, who lives on Bridge Street.
"We weren't going to take anything--my wife said, 'We'll be back for supper tonight'--but I grabbed three flash drives. One had my family photos and genealogy, the others had the book."
Like other homes in the village, the Wilkinsons' was heavily damaged. But the book was saved.
The flood figures in the book, also. The final photo shows severe Valley flooding, and Mr. Wilkinson dedicated the book to flood victims and all those who have helped with the recovery.
Praising Arcadia's helpful format--all the work was transmitted by email--Mr. Wilkinson made the company's November deadline.
Mr. Wilkinson is having book signings this Thursday and Saturday at the Loaves and Fishes Café at the Schoharie Reformed Church, noon to 1:30 each day.
He's also willing to have signings and give talks about the book at local libraries, with the proceeds going to libraries.
Mr. Wilkinson is also looking forward to speaking to other groups. He can be reached at 231-5283.
Royalties from The Schoharie Valley--about $1 per book--will go to the Schoharie Colonial Heritage Association.
Costing $21.99, the book is available at local book stores or through Arcadia Publishing, www.arcadiapublishing.com.