The Rose Hill Folly Company
By Bob Cudmore
Two Amsterdam clergymen had concerns and wanted Mayor John Dwyer to do something about it.
The Rose Hill Folly Company was scheduled to perform Wednesday, November 6, 1889 at the Potter Opera House on Market Street, across the thoroughfare from the future location of the Rialto Theatre.
Historian Hugh Donlon wrote that the Potter Opera House flourished in the 1880s, “For roller skating, fairs, carnivals, plays and concerts, for about everything but opera.”
Donlon said police sometimes shut down what community leaders thought were immoral presentations at the Market Street venue.
Reverend John McIncrow of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church and Reverend Donald Sprague of St. Ann’s Episcopal Church told the mayor the Rose Hill Company had an “immoral tendency.”
In addition to stopping the show, the clergymen asked Dwyer not to allow the “posting of indecent pictorial advertisements of shows” in the city.
The company was welcomed in other Upstate cities. In Ithaca the Cornell Daily Sun reported Rose Hill’s latest show promised “the most excellent order of burlesque and specialties.”
A Philadelphia newspaper said the skits “cleverly displayed all the beauties of the company” while giving the comedians “a chance to create laughter.”
Rose Hill Folly Company even had a recent presence on the Internet, selling vintage posters.
Mayor John Dwyer was born in Ireland, and became a plumber after moving to Amsterdam. He served in the Civil War with Nicholas Young, an Amsterdam man who went on to become head of baseball’s National League.
During a lull in the fighting, Dwyer was the catcher and Young the pitcher on a pioneer baseball team called the New Yorks. The New Yorks played an exhibition game against non-New Yorkers who called themselves the United States as a reported fifteen thousand people watched.
When the war ended Dwyer went back to his plumbing business. After serving as Amsterdam mayor he was elected to the State Assembly. His son, Matthew Dwyer, was the first graduate of St. Mary’s Institute and became a prominent local attorney.
According to The Saratogian, Mayor Dwyer found a relatively painless way out of his dilemma.
The Potter Opera House’s city license had expired. Dwyer refused to renew it. The common council could overrule the mayor but the council didn’t meet until the night of the show.
The Saratogian wrote, “The chances that the bald-headed gentlemen of Amsterdam will view the Parisian revels of the company are exceedingly slim.” The Rose Hill troupe failed to appear that night in old Amsterdam.
REVEREND McINCROW
Reverend John McIncrow, the priest who objected to having the Rose Hill Folly Company perform in Amsterdam, was Pastor of St. Mary’s on East Main Street for 20 years.
According to his Recorder obituary, “He was a public spirited citizen and did much for the cause of morality.” He was a native of Utica.
McIncrow sermonized that men who used foul language in front of working women should lose their jobs. He was an outspoken opponent of abortion. He deplored drunkenness and formed a temperance society.
McIncrow caused controversy when he chided a wealthy Catholic parishioner for making a contribution to a Protestant church in Fonda, even though St. Mary’s had accepted donations from Protestant mill owners.
McIncrow founded the parish school, St. Mary’s Institute, and invited the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet to teach there.
In September 1896, he officiated at the marriage of Peter Sullivan and Elizabeth P. Smith, who became the parents of one of America’s first television stars, Ed Sullivan.
McIncrow, 49, died suddenly of a heart attack five years after the controversy over the Rose Hill Folly Company.
