HOMETOWN HISTORY
May 10, 2019
150 Years Ago
Oneonta – Chief Engineer Wentz and a Committee of Directors were here this week to locate a roundhouse and other needed railroad conveniences. The extension of railroad operations brings quite a number of new citizens and families to the place. The railroad makes the town. Let the town welcome its people.
Cope & Company’s new goods have come, a real old-fashioned stock as to variety, but entirely new fashioned as to style. It is really comfortable to look at things in a general country store where everything is to be had from tea to silks and from crowbars to the most delicate textures worn for beauty and grace. “Jeems” insists that the new barrel of tar is of very extra quality. Call at Cope’s and see the cords of new goods.
The only fresh roasted coffee that is hot from the roaster is to be had at L.S. Osborn & Co. For the Chief Engineer makes good time and certainly gives the public good coffee.
May 1869
125 Years Ago
Again Defeated – Saturday of last week the Normal baseball nine played its second regular game of the season and met with its second defeat, again by the narrow margin of one run missing victory. Their opponents were the Binghamton High school team, re-enforced by other good players from the parlor city, and with Burke, well-known hereabouts as an excellent pitcher, in the box. The Colgate Academy ball team plays the Normals at the fairgrounds in this village tomorrow afternoon. Two defeats by narrow margins have wrought the Normals up to a determination to do or die.
May 1894
100 Years Ago
Boy Runs Off With Motor Car – Oneonta Chief of Police Blizard has sent out a warning to be on the lookout for an automobile which it is alleged that Earl Barriger ran off with the previous night. The car belongs to the young man’s father and it is a five passenger Buick, newly painted black with a yellow running gear and a new leather top. The license number on the car is 678-005M. Young Barriger is 18 years of age, weighs 130 pounds and has light brown hair and blue eyes.
There was a notable display of Northern Lights Friday night, extending from the west to the northeast and covering perhaps one-third of the visible heavens. The light was diffused more than usual, although there were visible numerous streamers which at times were quite bright. The display was observed by many.
May 1919
80 Years Ago
Upon pleading guilty to a drunken driving charge, Morris A. Joslin, 34, of Binghamton, was fined $50 by Judge Sterling P. Harrington in Oneonta City Court yesterday. Joslin’s operator’s and registration licenses were revoked. Police said Joslin was the operator of a machine which “cruised” in various sections of the city Saturday afternoon. Patrolman Robert Simmons said Harold Crumb, Binghamton youth, was operating the car when he stopped it in Chestnut Street. Crumb admitted Joslin had been driving. Charles L. Brefle, 73, of 15 Cedar Street, was arrested Sunday afternoon on a drunk driving charge.
He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of reckless driving. He drew a suspended sentence of 30 days in the county jail. His licenses were revoked. Brefle alarmed residents of River Street with the manner in which he operated his car when his vehicle mounted a curb and came close to striking pedestrians and a fire hydrant.
May 1939
60 Years Ago
Archibald MacLeish won the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for drama with his first play “J.B.” a modern rendition of the Biblical story of Job. Twice previously, he had won the poetry award. The Pulitzer Prize for fiction was awarded for Robert Lewis Taylor’s “The Travels of Jamie McPheeters,” the story of a wagon train journey to California during the 1849 gold rush. The gold medal for meritorious public service went to the Utica N.Y. Observer-Dispatch and Utica Daily Press for “their successful campaign against corruption, gambling and vice in their home city and the achievement of sweeping community reforms in the face of political pressure and threats of violence.”
May 1959
40 Years Ago
Dr. Peter Macris, professor of foreign languages at the State University College at Oneonta, will present “Opera Today in the U.S.A.” this coming Monday May 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the Alden Room, Milne Library on the college campus. The talk will feature slides, recordings and opera memorabilia. Mr. Macris, founder of the Glimmerglass Opera Theatre in Cooperstown, has combined an interest in music and drama with an academic career for many years. His background in singing and acting, along with graduate studies in German language and literature, has enabled him to merge the several disciplines required for the presentation of opera.
May 1979
10 Years Ago
With a plan in place to handle the first-time sale of beer at Damaschke Field, everyone in the new Oneonta Tigers’ organization is “chomping at the bit,” declares General Manager Andrew Weber.
Opening day is six weeks from Friday, May 8.
“We’re excited,” he said in an interview. “We want to show off the great product we think we have.”
May 7, 2009