Historic Sign Honors Schoharie Cannon

SCHOHARIE - A marker was dedicated at the historic cannon on the lawn of Schoharie high school Wednesday afternoon.

The two-sided blue sign with yellow lettering reads, "NAVAL CANNON Cast at Boston Naval Yard Placed on the Deck of the USS Constitution 1902-1907 Purchased from US Navy by Gertrude Leininger 1928."

Dan Beams, curator of the Old Stone Fort unveiled the plaque in front of students, alumni, and school officials around 1:30pm Wednesday.

"Once you tag it with a marker, you can be assured it's going to remain here," Mr. Beams said. "It's a fixture in the community."

Mary Johnson, director of the Old Stone Fort, added, "We're very excited to have this sign next to this iconic piece of history in the village."

The cannon needs a restoration and SCS Superintendent David Blanchard said a GoFundMe page may be started to raise money for the restoration.

"We want nothing more than having it restored and reman on the front lawn of the high school for perpetuity," Superintendent Blanchard said.

Ms. Johnson is doing research on what is needed for a restoration and how much it will cost.

The cannon, which weighs 4,275 pounds with a 1,200-pound carriage, has been on the school lawn for nearly 100 years.

The restoration is not in the district budget and would be more of a community project, the Superintendent said last month.

It had been hoped that a sponsor was going to raise funds and plan a restoration of the cannon, but that did not happen.

In August 2023, it was announced that a community member was going to spearhead the fund raising and restoration, but those plans have apparently have fallen through.

Despite many green coats of paint by Middleburgh school students, the cannon has remained in relatively good shape but donations and a restoration are needed to return the cannon to its former state.

The black cannon is not operational "but historically significant as a replica," Mr. Blanchard said in 2023.

The cannon's wooden base and wheels also need to be restored.

As detailed in a Forgotten Schoharie County article in the Schoharie News in 2023, the cannon on the front lawn of the school came to Schoharie in 1928, off the deck of the USS Constitution. The ship was launched in 1797 and is oldest ship still afloat.

The cannon is not one of the original guns on the ship that saw extension action and became legendary during the War of 1812 with the British. Though it is not an original, and is, in fact, a 1906 replica, it is still an landmark in the village.

It was around 1906 that the United States Congress decided to restore the ship to its former glory. After public outcry against the ship being used for target practice by the Navy halted its planned sinking, $100,000 was appropriated to restore the ship as a museum. This included new casts of cannon for her decks. 

Some 54 guns were going to be cast for the restoration. But the Naval Constructor in charge of the armaments, believing there was no documentation about the original guns, used a French design instead. So rather than long guns and carronades, the designer saved money by using the same gun on every deck.

In 1925, the Navy rectified this and restored the USS Constitution. The new restoration scrapped all of the 1906 guns for being historically inaccurate. After four years in drydock, the guns the Navy used to replace the 1906 guns were also inaccurate. These were the British-style weapons, but they did represent the kinds of weapons found on the gun decks and spar decks.

Naval Constructor Elliot Snow oversaw the work, which began in the summer of 1906 and was completed by August 1907. In that one year of work, Constitution was transformed from her days as a receiving ship to the appearance of an early 19th century sailing warship. This restoration, which was primarily cosmetic, included the removal of the enormous barn-like structure, the installation of a sailing rig, and the opening of the waist bulwarks. Added to the list of work accomplished was the casting of 54 guns for the spar and guns decks, thereby re-establishing an armament aboard (even though fake) for the first time in nearly 30 years, according to the USS Constitution Museum website.

It’s not quite clear how Naval Constructor Snow determined the gun pattern for the spar and gun deck batteries. His purported research lead him to believe that there was no documentation left regarding Constitution‘s War of 1812 armament. Based on the guns that he ordered cast in the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston in 1906, it is assumed he instead relied on information from Louis Tousard’s late 18th-century treatise American Artillerists's Companion and used a French pattern, according to the website.

Naval Constructor Snow understood the difference between short-barreled carronades typically found on warships’ upper decks and long-barreled, heavier guns found on the lower gun decks. Yet, when it came time to make the decision on Constitution‘s replica battery in 1906, the 54 guns were identical in pattern regardless of where they were to be placed on the ship. Even more perplexing, the spar deck guns were made approximately eight inches longer than the gun deck guns. The French pattern guns remained on the ship for 20 years following the 1906 restoration.

In 1925, the decision was made to extensively restore “Old Ironsides.” The 54 replica guns were removed and stored at the Navy Yard prior to the ship entering dry dock in June 1927. 

Soon, one such gun was on its way to Schoharie.

In his 1931 final report, Lieutenant John Lord, the restoration superintendent, noted, “All of these guns [from the 1906 restoration] were discarded as they were not of the type carried by the Constitution.”

Lieutenant Lord had conducted his own research and came to the inaccurate conclusion that Constitution was originally outfitted with English guns in 1797. It turns out his guns, which were installed on the ship at the end of the restoration, were no more correct than Snow’s French pattern 1906 guns.

Lack of funding was again an issue in the 1927-1931 restoration. By 1928, the decision was made to sell materials removed from the ship, including the replica guns, as a way to raise money for the restoration. Many of the items sold were inaccurately described as “original” (i.e. from the original construction of the ship in 1795-1797). This inaccurate description carried over to the identifying plaques of some of the 1906 guns as they found new homes across the country. According to a October 21, 1928 Daily Boston Globe article, Selling Relics of Constitution, “There are 21 [guns] in all, and they will be sold at $150 each. They will not be replaced on the Constitution, as they are not exact copies of the original gun…They are being sought as ornaments for lawns and public parks.”

At least 33 of the 1906 replica guns were dispersed across the United States and many now decorate courtyards, college campuses, cemeteries, and parks around the nation.

According the the USS Constitution Museum website, 14 of the guns now reside in 10 locations in Massachusetts. Only one of the guns is located in New York.

A gun was purchased in 1928 by Peter A. Leininger and displayed at the Schoharie Central School.

As with many historic "stories," there are different versions.

Some interesting information was provided by an old newspaper photo of the cannon and its caption provided by resident and Schoharie alumnus Sharon Aernecke Aitchison.

According to the caption, "It had been decided some years ago to sell the twenty-one guns on the spar deck, to schools and to historical societies in order to raise money to recondition the 'Constitution.' 

"However, the order to do so was soon countermanded and this particular cannon was the only one to leave the famous ship. It was presented to the school in 1928 by Peter A. Leininger who purchased it and had it shipped to Schoharie."

The cannon was placed on the lawn in front of the new school which was built after a fire destroyed the old school in 1926.

There it has remained.

It might be a little "thicker" than when it was originally set in place due to coats of green paint put there by mischievous Middleburgh students as a prank. The offending paint was, of course, covered up with the proper black paint by SCS crews.

In the mid-1990s, a new school board member, who shall remain nameless, said the police should be called and anyone found painting the cannon green should be arrested.

The suggestion was rejected by a round of raucous laughter.

More than 40 students watched the ceremony on the front lawn.

SCS Superintendent David Blanchard was one of the speakers at the ceremony.

Dan Beams, curator of the Old Stone Fort, unveiled the historic marker Wednesday afternoon.

SCS alumni, including Richard Sherman, check out the new plaque Wednesday.

SCS alumni pose by the new plaque Wednesday afternoon.

Lois Goblet of Assemblyman Chris Tague's office stands with others by the new marker.

The cannon has been on the front lawn of the Schoharie high school for nearly 100 years.