CLARKSVILLE – The hamlet of Clarksville will celebrate its history on Saturday at its second annual Heritage Day.

The celebration comes as the town of New Scotland turns 175 years old; Supervisor Ed Clark will mark the occasion with a cake-cutting. Clarksville itself will celebrate its 175th birthday next year.
Heritage Day is "a celebration of life in the Clarksville area," and was established to bring together the community, at least once a year, said Joe Hogan, president of the Clarksville Historical Society and chairman of Heritage Day.

This year’s festivities – which mostly will be centered at the Clarksville Community Church – will include a car show, Heritage Day postal cancellations issued by the Clarksville Post Office, a geological surface walk, a firehouse dance with a local band, Minds End, a communitywide garage sale, and numerous demonstrations and informative booths.

Clarksville – in the southwestern part of New Scotland – was part of Bethlehem until the 1830s; the area was settled, though, in the late 1700s, at which point limestone was the main industry, said Hogan, a lifelong Clarksville resident.

There were 50 limekilns within a two-mile radius of Clarksville, Hogan said.
The name Clarksville was born on April 16, 1833, in honor of Adam Clark, Hogan said. Clark was the postmaster of "Bethlehem PO," which Clarksville was called before it was renamed and became a part of New Scotland. He was also the innkeeper of the Clark Hotel, located where June’s Place is now, Hogan said.
Some residents are under the impression that Clark founded Clarksville, Hogan said. "He didn’t find anything," said Hogan; he happened to be in the right place at the right time. Clark was a veteran of the War of 1812, and was a prominent citizen, he added.

The first post office opened in Clarksville in June of 1812, and was the only one in the town of Bethlehem for 12 years, said Hogan.
"A lot of communities picked up their names from the post office," Hogan explained. "That was the hub of activity back then."

Automotive Memorabilia

This year’s car show will be the third that the Clarksville Historical Society has sponsored.
"The historical society got their feet wet by doing the car show," said Hogan, adding that, after the first show, the society decided to launch Heritage Day the following year.
"If it’s a nice day, people will come from all over," Hogan said of the origin of the people showing their cars. Last year’s rain kept the number of cars low, but there were 50 cars at the first show, he said. "If we hit 50 to 100 cars, we’d be real happy," said Hogan.

Tony Silvano will show his two 1967 Chevrolets – one is a sandy-colored Impala, and the other is a maroon Caprice – on the lawn outside his Clarksville garage.

A.S.T. Automotive Memorabilia, Silvano’s garage, is located on the corner of Route 443 and Verda Avenue.
Silvano’s garage has "everything you can think of automotive," he said. He has been collecting car "stuff" for about three years.
His collection began with "a love of old cars," Silvano said.

The walls are lined with shelves and decorated with old signs advertising various oils, tires, ice cream, tobacco, root beer, and paints.

Silvano estimates that he has 75 different tire-tube patch kits, and at least 400 different sized oil cans – quarts, three- and four-ounce squirt cans, gallons, two gallons, two-and-a-half gallons, five gallons. Not to mention the dozens of glass jars in which oil was once sold.
Frankly, said Silvano, "It’s a lot of stuff in there."

The memorabilia dates from the late 1960s back to 1896, Silvano said. The average age is late-’40s to early-’50s, he said.
Silvano opened his garage for Heritage Day last year, he said. "Older people came in and said, ‘It brings back a lot of memories,’" he recalled.
"It’s a good conversation piece," he said. "People can reminisce about better times."
Silvano has been working on cars for 30 years, and likes older vehicles because, he said, "It’s simpler. My preference is Chevrolet," he said. "But I like them all."

Civil War surgeon

Matthew Farina, a pediatric cardiologist and a member of the Capital District Civil War Round Table, will represent the Round Table at Heritage Day. He will display his reproduction of a Civil War amputation kit. Farina is not a re-enactor, but he will explain how the instruments were used, and will answer questions.

Farina bought the kit about eight or nine years ago from a company that makes surgical supplies for dentists, he said. The company bought an actual amputation kit that had belonged to a Confederate soldier, and reproduced the kit for resale, he explained.
"All the instruments are authentic-looking," he said. The kit contains about 25 or 30 instruments and other "odds and ends" such as a conventional bone saw, a small bone saw, and a needle driver, said Farina.
"When you look at this kit, you’d be surprised at how much it looks like modern-day instruments," he said. The scalpel blades, for example, look similar, he said, except the blade is attached; today’s scalpel blades are replaceable.

He also has straight and curved needles, a compression tourniquet with screws to dial in varying amounts of pressure to an artery, and silk for suturing.

In emergencies, though, surgeons would boil the hair from a horse’s tail to suture with, Farina said.

Farina frequently does presentations on Civil War subjects for the Round Table, and each year the group participates in events like the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, he said.

The group has been very successful at raising funds for Civil War battlefield restoration, said Farina.

On Saturday, Farina will also have some Capital District Round Table commemorative envelopes and cachets, he said. The Round Table designs the cancellation stamp – the round mark with a date that is stamped on all mailed envelopes – to meet the post-office specifications, and the envelopes are all hand-cancelled, he explained.

Farina, who lives in Unionville, will set up his Round Table booth next to that of his wife, Nancy, who will be spinning and demonstrating how to make yarn, with the Mountain Treadler Fiber Art and Golden Fleece Fiber Art groups, he said.
During last year’s Heritage Day, "I was just the tent putter-upper and taker-downer," Farina said. "She talked me into this," he said of his wife.

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Other Heritage Day events include: The famous firehouse breakfast at the Onesquethaw Volunteer Fire Company from 8 to 10:30 a.m; the wurst lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Giffy’s Bar-B-Que take-out chicken dinner from 4 to 6 p.m., sponsored by the Clarksville Community Church and the historical society.

The historical society will be selling ice cream donated by Stewart’s and Toll Gate Ice Cream. June’s Place will be serving breakfast and lunch and Pa’s Pizza and Deli will be open for lunch.
The Onesquethaw Fish & Game Club, the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy, and the Onesquethaw-Coeymans Watershed Council will host an information booth; the geological surface walk will meet in the upper parking lot behind June’s Place at 1 p.m.; volunteer wildlife rehabilitator Michele Segerberg will host "Wildlife Alive – Birds of Prey" from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. under the tree, east of the church bells; the town of New Scotland cake-cutting ceremony will be at 1:30 p.m.; the Quilter’s Studio will host a yard sale; The church will have an indoor Expo in the Fellowship Hall with vendors from Pampered Chef, MaryKay,and Tastefully Simple, they will also be selling raffle tickets for a 32- and a 40-inch flat-screen television; the Clarksville Boy Scout Troop 89 will have scouting demonstrations; and Joe Merli, from Duanesburg will demonstrate blacksmithing skills.