New
York's
Capital District
A History of its Industries,
Railroads and Inventions
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A Short Biography of Timothy
Starr
Tim was born in Connecticut
but moved with his family to Hebron, New York (Washington
County) at an early age. Tim, his younger brother and younger sister
all graduated from the Granville school district. It was during his
senior year in high school that Tim wrote his first book, a novel
called "The Meatloaf Incident and Other Adventures" that is
based on his experiences growing up in Hebron. After receiving
college degrees in History, Accounting, and Business Administration
(MBA), he went to work in the nonprofit field, holding positions in
accounting and senior management.
In 1997 he moved to the Town of Milton near the
airport. From 2003 to 2013 he lived in Rock City Falls and served as the Treasurer
of the Saratoga County Historical Society (Brookside) Board of
Trustees, but in 2014 reluctantly moved to Glenville to be closer to
work.
After noticing many ruins around the Town of Milton, he began
researching the town's history. The discovery of an old trolley
railroad bed behind his house motivated him to write a book
about the line's history. That project naturally led to another one
that detailed the industries served by the railroad. When it was
discovered that several important inventions were developed to
support these industries, yet another project unfolded that resulted
in a Ballston Spa book of inventions, and a Saratoga County book of
inventions.
The birth of his daughter in 2007 put further research on hold, but in early 2009
Tim began working on a biography of "Paper Bag King" George West and
a biography of Isaiah Blood, a local scythe and axe manufacturer. In
2010, the History Press published two of his books: Great Inventors
of New York's Capital District and Lost Industries of Saratoga
County. A long-standing interest in local railroads resulted in the
books "Early Railroads of New York's Capital District" (2011), "The Golden Age of Railroads in New York's Capital District"
(2012), "Railroading in New York's Capital
District: Hot Off The Presses" (2012),
and "Railroad Wars of New York State" (2013). His most
recent book, "Around Milton," is part of the Arcadia Press Images
of America series.
He is a featured writer in Ann Hauprich's book "Legacies
Unlimited," in a chapter titled: "Timothy Starr: He (Literally)
Wrote the Book on Village Inventors." In 2009 he contributed a
piece about Saratoga County inventors for the Brookside Museum's
book "In Our Own Words: The Story of Saratoga County." In
2015 he contributed a chapter to "Saratoga Springs: A Centennial
History." He has also been
published in Saratoga Living, Our Town Ballston Spa, Spotlight
Milton, The Saratogian, and was a frequent
contributor to Ballston Spa Life's History Lesson series. On
February 6, 2011, he appeared on WNYT News
Channel 13's interview show called Forum 13 in which he
discussed the book "Great Inventors of New York's Capital District."
On February 17, 2016, he was interviewed by Bob Cudmore for
"The Historians"
podcast series.
Tim's collection of historical data includes
2,000 patents, dozens of local history books, thousands of digital
history articles, thousands of newspaper articles, and 11,000 scanned
photographs. About 75 percent of his written collection is digitized into
PDF files, while all of his photographs are digitized.
Never too late to
follow your passion
Published: Sunday, June
7, 2009
By JOSEPH ROCHA
Ballston Spa Life editor
In Beverly Moore,
Hauprich writes
about a village
woman who may have
done her one better.
Moore, a retired
nurse, waited until
she was 80 years old
before publishing
and then reached
back to give readers
of her recently
published first
non-fiction a
glimpse of life
inside Ballston
Spa’s former
hospital.
Speaking of
historians, late-blooming writers and local
history, I draw your attention to this
week’s History Lesson on this page.
Ballston Spa resident, finance director and
new father, Timothy Starr joins us for what
we hope will be a regular contribution.
Starr has in five
years exemplified the discipline,
perseverance and passion professional
historians envy, becoming a familiar face in
area archives. He has already
published several books on local history,
been coaxed onto the directors’ board of the
Brookside
Museum, home of
Saratoga
County’s Historical Society, and been
inspirational in his creativity and
doggedness to locate new resources or
connect anew dusty ones.
Starr and Moore are
examples to us all of coming to a passion
late in life. But in acting upon that, they
enrich everyone around them.

Picture of Tim at the Empire Mill in Rock City Falls, taken by
photographer
Antonio Bucca for Ann Hauprich's book "Legacies Unlimited"
(2008).
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