Town of Esperance Historian Ken Jones shares a story from his files from the Dale Family, whose father, retired USMC Major Frederick H. Dale, cherishes a boyhood memory of serving then-Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt an ice cream cone at a 1930 Farm Bureau picnic at Howe Caverns. Dale was 12 at the time.
Born in 1917 in Albany to the late Frederick Sheldon Dale, Jr. and Mildred (Hunter), the younger Dale spent his youth in Esperance with his mother and stepfather, William Montanye, and graduated Cobleskill High School in 1936.
Gov. Roosevelt drew a huge crowd to the August 22, 1930, Farm Bureau picnic in the Howe Caverns’ parking lot. Frederick—he often went by F. H.—got the job selling ice cream cones through his Aunt Blanche, then the Schoharie County Clerk, the first woman to hold the job, elected in 1919.
Meeting the governor and future president became a lifetime memory for Major Dale. And while a career in the Marines took him around the world, he often returned to Esperance throughout his lifetime for the Memorial Day parade, and services at the church and cemetery.
Dale’s path crossed with FDR again. He was with the Marine Corps’ detachment that in April 1945, marched in the funeral procession through the nation’s Capital for the late President Roosevelt—the man the young Dale had sold an ice cream cone to 15 years earlier.
Dale enlisted in the Marines in February 1942 and participated in both the Guadalcanal and Bougainville Island campaigns, followed by a tour of duty in Japan as part of the Marine occupation force. Following WWII, Major Dale served briefly in Korea and later on an extended tour of duty in Vietnam.
Major Dale died in February 2009, in Charlotte, NC, predeceased by his wife Olga. His two sons, Thomas Hunter Dale and William Jessen Dale and their families live in Florida and North Carolina, respectively.
Major F. H. Dale is buried in the Esperance Cemetery.
Included in Esperance Historian Jones files on the Dale family was a transcript of the Aug. 23 news article on Gov. Roosevelt’s appearance at Howe Caverns. The article is attributed to a “special” correspondent. In this case, it was Virgil Clymer, then the general manager at the cave. Minor edits have been made for clarity.
From The Albany Evening News:
Aid to Farms Cited by Roosevelt
Governor at Howe Cavern Picnic Tells of Lower Taxation
Special to the Albany Evening News
COBLESKILL, Aug. 22 —The government of New York state is “farm minded,” Governor Roosevelt declared in an address before 5.000 farmers gathered yesterday at Howe Caverns for the fourteenth annual picnic of the Schoharie County Farm Bureau.
This attitude of the state government, he attributed in a large measure, [is due] to the study and work of the agricultural advisory committee appointed just prior to his inauguration.
Some political significance was given by Republican leaders to the Governor’s address by the presence of Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., a member the Governor’s Advisory Committee and Democratic candidate for the Schoharie seat in the Assembly. Mr. Van Wagenen introduced the Governor.
The Governor said that as the result of the committee’s work, the state no longer receives support from taxes on the farmer’s property. These go to local governments only.
“It is a simple but interesting fact that it was not until the appointment of by me of the Agricultural Advisory Committee before I was inaugurated that any definite study of farm conditions or any definite program of relief and improvement of existing conditions had been undertaken in a generation,” [said Roosevelt].
The committee found that the tax burden in this state bore unfairly and unequally on the farmer.
The result was recommendations by the Governor which the Legislature carried through under which the burden of farm taxes was reduced approximately $30,000,000 a year.
Another part of the program consists in increased appropriations by the state for what is best described as the functions of government in improving agricultural conditions.
During each of the past two years apportionment of appropriations to agricultural fairs has been increased from $250,000 to $375,000.
#
Special thanks to Esperance Historian Jones for his contribution to this Cave Country blog post.