HOMETOWN History

July 12, 2019

150 Years Ago

The second annual commencement of Oneonta Union School occurred on Monday, July 12 and closed with the Tuesday evening following. The address before the Pioneer Society by Dr. Jewell was attended by a fair concourse of our citizens, but not nearly as large as it ought to have been. The address was excellent. The suggestions advanced ought to be made practical by our young people, tending as it did to the promotion of morality, virtue and purity. At the conclusion of the meeting they repaired to the residence of David Yager, where the Calliopa and Pioneer Societies were to hold their first annual reunion. The evening passed off pleasantly and profitably. The members of the Calliopa Society merit much commendation for their untiring efforts to prove their first attempt a success. Oneontans should be proud of the rough Pioneers and the more fair members of the Calliopa. Mr. and Mrs. Yager did much to conduce to the advantage and pleasure of the occasion. The exercises at the Presbyterian Church on Tuesday evening were flattering
to the school, and indicated that its students are being thoroughly and properly instructed in whatever pertains to education. The orations, compositions, declamations and music were of the highest character, evincing the finest discrimination, style and beauty.

July 1869

125 Years Ago

The announcement of the death of Charles E. Bunn on Saturday afternoon of last week came as a shock to his
numerous friends in Oneonta, few of whom knew of his
serious illness. Mr. Bunn was born in Hartwick 47 years ago. He was the son of William Bunn, a life-long resident of that town, and a brother of Mr. Henry C. Bunn of Mt. Vision. In 1861, being then only fifteen years of age, he enlisted in the 152nd New York volunteers and served his country well until the close of the war. In 1866 he came to Oneonta and engaged in business, and the following year was married, his wife being a daughter of M.H. Bissell, who with three children survives him. Kind, unselfish and generous in the days of prosperity, his death removes from our town one who will long be remembered with affectionate
regret alike by his comrades on battle’s bloody field and by those who knew him in more peaceful walks of life.

July 1894

80 Years Ago

First of the three tourist information booths sponsored by the Youth Frontier Movement opened Saturday on South Side and will be operated 12 hours daily from 9 until 9. Plans are underway to open another at West End today but the East End booth will not be ready for several days. The South Side booth is manned at present by Boris Panko and Edward Byard. Money for its operation has been secured partly through N.Y.A. funds and partly through contributions
from local merchants. The boys work in shifts of six
hours each, six days a week with one boy who will rotate, relieving the other two at each of the booths. Each booth
is equipped with a telephone which tourists may use for
local calls and information about hotels, restaurants,
tourist homes, churches, church services, historical sites, recreation and entertainment.

July 1939

60 Years Ago

Fox Hospital – Today’s Census: 85. Births – Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kellner, 3 Tilton Ave. a son, 8 lbs. 3 ozs., 10:47 p.m., July 7; Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Condon, 30 Pine Street, a son 8 lbs. 11.5 ozs., 6:52 a.m., July 8. Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Benjamin, Oneonta, R.D. 3, a son, 10 libs. 1 oz., 7:40 a.m., July 8. Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Lyon, Milford Road, a son, 6 lbs., 12.5 ozs., 9:35 p.m., July 7. Admissions: Mrs. Emma Cronin, 50 River Street, Mrs. Margaret Platts, Worcester; Mrs. Ruth Sprague, Morris; Mrs. Beverly Sanford, 6 Shepherd Avenue. Discharges: Mrs. Mary Ann Spoor and baby daughter, Laurens; Mrs. Elizabeth Waterhouse and baby daughter, Emmons Farms; Mrs. Suzanne Mykytyn and baby daughter, West Oneonta.

July 1959

40 Years Ago

Pat St. John, the self-proclaimed psychic who predicts
a catastrophe at Niagara Falls this Sunday has taken a tour of the famous attraction and come away convinced of impending doom. “I can turn away and look toward Buffalo and feel absolutely fine,” said the housewife from Bridgewater, Connecticut. “But, when I turn toward Niagara Falls, I get a tremendous feeling right in my solar plexus.”
Mrs. St. John’s July 4 prediction of a disaster at Niagara Falls picked up considerably more public attention when a seismic alarm at the falls indicated that a huge mass of rock had shifted by a quarter inch. It could not be determined if the rocks had shifted at once or gradually since the sensors were installed in 1971. The U,S, Army Corps of Engineers who were brought to the falls after the alarm said that three days of monitoring sensor devices had shown no further evidence of any movement.

July 1979

20 Years Ago

Local artists Bonnie Gale and Bertha Rogers were awarded
a total of $1,000 in the third round of the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts Special Opportunity Stipend Program. Gale, a traditional willow basket maker residing in Norwich received a stipend to study with a
mentor. She will work with Stanley Kraus, a Polish
immigrant basket maker who lives in Rochester. Rogers,
a Delhi poet, will use her stipend to help pay her expenses for a residency fellowship at the Hawthornden Castle
International Retreat for Writers in Scotland for a month this fall. She will work to complete a poetry manuscript.

July 1999

10 Years Ago

A self-described entrepreneur recently bought the historic Oneonta Theatre and seeks ideas to restore entertainment to the stage and screens at 47 Chestnut Street. “This building has some great potential,” its new owner Thomas Cormier said. The purchase is a “fine resolution” to questions about the theatre’s fate, said Patrice Macaluso, president of the Friends of the Oneonta Theatre. The group formed last
year to preserve the historic site and had launched plans
to buy the complex in downtown Oneonta. The purchase price paid by Cormier was not revealed. The Oneonta Theatre name would be maintained because of its history, Cormier said.

July 2009