Born on July 24, 1793 in Amsterdam, NY, Mathias Bovee had a normal life for a boy his age until he reached 14. That was the year his Dad, a local farmer died and young Mathias, who at the time was the eldest male in his family left school and tended the family farm.

A hard-working opportunistic young man, Bovee would later become a school teacher and then a local merchant. His big social networking break came when a wealthy Amsterdam philanthropist named Benedict Arnold (Not that Benedict Arnold!) married Bovee’s sister. That union must have helped both  Bovee’s business and political ambitions because in addition to gaining positions with the local railroad and an Amsterdam bank, he was…

You can read the rest of my story about this long-ago Amsterdam politician in my new book “A Year’s Worth of Amsterdam Birthdays.” To order your copy, click here.