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Show Birthplace of Yankee Doodle 300 Years Old ALBANY. Fort Crailo, "birthplace "birth-place of Yankee Doodle," is three centuries old this year. Here in the quaint two-story brick building a British army surgeon, Richard Schuckburgh, wrote the rallying ral-lying song for America's armies in the Revolution. According to legend, Schuckburgh was sitting on the wall of the well in the rear of the house in 1758, during the French and Indian wars, when he wrote the song. It is said that he was inspired to put the words together by the sight of an approaching approach-ing group of ragged American recruits. re-cruits. Later the words were set to the music of an old English air. Originally the structure was built in 1642 to protect the residents of a Dutch manor of nearly one million mil-lion acres, now split into five counties. coun-ties. Its walls were 20 inches thick and pierced with embrasures for firing fir-ing muskets. Now it is furnished with priceless Dutch antiques and is in the charge of the state. |