We Bet You Didn't Know...

• The Galen Historical Society is celebrating its 50th year in 2026.
• Amelia Jenks Bloomer, famous for wearing the costume that bears her name, was qualified to teach and at age 17 taught school in Clyde.
• The first female Village Mayor in New York State was elected in Clyde.
  • Mayor Katherine M. Wykle elected March of 1937 and again March of 1941. She was the first women elected to head ANY village government in New York State
• Two American Presidents visited Clyde.
  • President Elect Abraham Lincoln’s stop is well documented and the funeral train taking his body back to Springfield Illinois is as well. Lincoln was elected in 1861 and served until 1865 when he was assassinated. The Galen Historical Society commissioned this Wall hanging to envision Lincoln’s visit to Clyde.
  • Movie Star Ronald Reagan visited Clyde October 6, 1958 on behalf of General Electric, many years prior to his election as our President from 1981-1989. 
    • GHS has First day Regan memorabilia, in our gift shop area, for stamp collectors to purchase.
      • The set of four envelopes with pictures of Reagan's visit to Clyde are a Set of 4, pictorial first day covers for the 37-cent Ronald Reagan commemorative stamp featuring photos taken on his visit to the Clyde General Electric plant on October 6, 1958.
      • The envelope with two Reagan stamps is a unique, pictorial, double first day cover for both the 37-cent and the 39-cent Ronald Reagan commemorates stamps.
• The only known cobalt blue canning jar manufactured in the Clyde Glass Works sold, at auction, for the sum of $ 17,500 in October of 2001 . The jar was most likely made from leftover cobalt glass used in manufacture of the Hotchkiss Essential Oil Bottles as a whimsy by one of the glass blowers.
  • The Clyde Glass Works started out as a window glass factory.
  • The workers of the glass works made whimsies to supplement their income.
  • The Glass Works went bankrupt more than once.
  • For more than 85 years glass was manufactured in Clyde.
  • The factory burned on July 24, 1873 and then was rebuilt.
  • At full capacity the factory employed 85 men, 45 boys, and 6 girls.
  • Glass blowers received 8 dollars a day and payroll for the week reached nearly $1,000.The glass works was located on land where Acme Electric, General Electric, Parker Hannifin, and where Advanced Atomization Technologies (AATech) exists.
• Clyde once had its own currency and did business with foreign countries.