George Slingerland

George Slingerland (right) steps and leans on a shovel at a groundbreaking at Saratoga Battlefield in 1926.  NYS Assemblyman Burton Esmond (left) is also shown.

SARA-2442; Scrapbook, SARA Archives

Mechanicville, NY Mayor (1925-27) George Slingerland (b. 1872, d. 1932) received a perhaps unexpected inspiration during one of his Rotary Club meetings. As president of the Mechanicville club in 1925, he or another member had invited a local pastor, Rev. Delos Sprague of Ballston Spa, NY, to speak at a club meeting. Sprague’s presentation on the Saratoga Battlefield moved Slingerland so much that he seems to have devoted the rest of his life to the site.

The following year, 1926, Slingerland became the first president of New York State’s Advisory Board on Battlefields and Historic Sites. From 1926-32 he served as the first superintendent of Saratoga Battlefield.

Building on the initial work of the Saratoga Battlefield Association, Slingerland began preparing for the upcoming Sesquicentennial of the Battles of Saratoga in 1927. He also hoped to have each state that sent troops to the Battles of Saratoga place a monument on the Battlefield, though only New Hampshire did so (1927).

Later, anticipating the need to acquire and preserve more land, he worked with the state’s Conservation Department to conduct a study on future land acquisition priorities. The report focused on areas of fighting and encampments, but it also presaged the need to consider preservation of the area’s historic viewshed.

Slingerland used the study to begin negotiations securing land purchasing rights and negotiating future costs. This helped the Conversation Department negotiate the 1930 purchase of six more farms for $90K. Saratoga Battlefield grew by approximately 1430 acres, though it was the last such land purchase during the NYS administrative period.

After the Stock Market Crash of October 1930, New York was able to do little else with the site, including paying Slingerland’s salary. He nonetheless continued his work. This included building on the 1928 installation of a “Memorial Pavilion” with the 1931 installation of a “Monument to the Unknown American Dead,” paid for by the Daughters of the American Revolution. A 1932 “Memorial Grove” was also planted around that monument and beside the pavilion.

George Slingerland died of a heart attack October 8, 1932, and Saratoga Battlefield, though managed by the NYS Division of Lands and Forests, would lack strong leadership during the remainder of its time as a NYS historical site.