Nicholas K. Burns Publishing

06/12/2025

From Dick Williams' new book of selected historical articles on the Village of Clinton and the Town of Kirkland to be published soon.

This excerpt from an article on Clark Mills and the Hind & Harrison Plush Co. and how tariffs at the time brought them to the Town of Kirkland from England. Tariffs...sound familiar?

"...a wealthy Englishman named Arthur Hind and his partner Mr. Harrison purchased the defunct mill and imported their workers along with their skills from England where they had a factory. This enabled Hind and Harrison to circumvent the disadvantages caused by the McKinley tariff.

"To avoid the tariff, Arthur Hind and H.B. Harrison, both English textile mill owners, set up shop here in 1891 to manufacture plush in the empty mills of the Clark brothers. Plush was used on buggy seats, coffin linings, and furniture."

Photo courtesy of the Clinton Historical Society.

06/06/2025

Remember Dad this Father's Day with our Charlie Chan Returns series. Some comments we've been getting online:

"Read both of these, they were great."

"Both are really fun reads. I hope there are more to come."

"Read both of them. They are good."

"Just ordered them."

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05/26/2025

From Dick Williams "Collected Writings" to be published soon:

Captain Isaac Powell and the Fifth Oneida Regiment

"The Powell name has come down to the twentieth century as they lived on the south side of College Hill Road. One member of the family was Isaac Powell, an 1860 graduate of Hamilton College.

"Fresh out of Hamilton when the war began, Powell soon became an officer for the Fifth Oneida Regiment as a captain. He began recruiting for volunteers here for Company G in August, 1862.

"Company G was composed of men primarily from the towns of Augusta, Bridgewater, Kirkland, and Marshall...

"The Maltese Cross was the symbol of the regiment. In early 1863, the 146th wore Zouave uniforms which were fashioned after the French Foreign Legion and featured fatigue caps, short loose jackets, and very full pants. The colors were light blue with yellow trim.

"James Stewart of Clinton was the first lieutenant. Stewart had the distinction of raising the first Union flag in Richmond after the evacuation by the Confederates. He had been confined to Libby prison there.

"At the battle of Chancellorsville, Powell led Company G and did not hear the bugle call to fallback. His company kept advancing and was surrounded, but Powell rallied the men, and they attacked the Confederates fighting hand to hand back to the Union lines."

05/24/2025

Turns out floods in the Mohawk Valley are an old story...Dick Williams writes in this article from August 2020 (from his new book that I'll be publishing soon) about a dangerous flooding of Oriskany Creek on College Street in Clinton:

"In February, 1925, several days of very warm weather and rain loosened the ice which had formed previously. Enormous cakes of ice and debris floated downstream on the raging creek, causing an ice jam at the old three-arch stone bridge on College Street on February 11, 1925...The house hardest hit was just west of the creek on the north side owned by Mr. and Mrs. J.R. Getman at 106 College Street."

Photos courtesy of the Clinton Historical Society

05/24/2025

Visit Amazon's Charlie Chan Returns Page and shop for all Charlie Chan Returns books. Check out pictures, author information, and reviews of Charlie Chan Returns

05/08/2025

How do I know that former Washington Post columnist Michael Kernan grew up in a Norton Avenue, Clinton, NY farmhouse built in the late 1790s on land once owned by George Washington? And that same house is on the National Register of Historic Places?

I know this and lots more fascinating Clinton/Kirkland history working on my latest book, a collection of articles written by my great friend and local historian, Dick Williams. More history treats to come as I work my way through Dick’s collected stories.

05/05/2025

Visit Amazon's Charlie Chan Returns Page and shop for all Charlie Chan Returns books. Check out pictures, author information, and reviews of Charlie Chan Returns

04/17/2025

Some good reviews on our Charlie Chan Mysteries...

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04/10/2025

South Boston Historical Society says about this new Chan mystery set in Boston's Hotel Statler, "Excellent read."

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01/29/2025

Celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year today, Wednesday, January 29, with the wit and wisdom of one of detective fiction's most famous Golden Age sleuths, Charlie Chan. https://nkbpublishing.com/the-tangled-string-a-charlie-chan-mystery/

01/28/2025