HOMETOWN HISTORY

July 15, 2021

Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library

135 Years Ago

Home & Vicinity – Mrs. Scanling of Oneonta, who has for years been addicted to the use of morphine, takes now on average ten grains daily. Her average used to be twelve grains a day, and once, through oversight, she took eighteen grains at a dose without ill effects. When it is considered that from one-third to one-half grains of morphine is the usual dose for an adult and that fatal effects usually follow where from one to three grains are given, the magnitude of the amount of morphine which slavish habit requires this poor woman to indulge in becomes woefully apparent.
It is reported that a child of Mrs. Davis Brumaghim, who lives back of the board fence near the railroad shops, died today of diphtheria. The ball game last Saturday between the Oneonta and Franklin clubs resulted in a score of 31 to 5 in favor of the home nine. The Oneonta nine has been materially strengthened by the addition of the Cox brothers of Williams College, who are passing the summer at Gilbertsville.

July 1886

110 Years Ago

Advertisement – If you are thin, your health is not what it should be. If you are losing weight steadily there is something wrong that should be attended to at once. You cannot be healthy and strong if you are thin. Samose makes the thin and scrawny, plump and robust; it mixes with the food so that all of the elements that make solid bone, firm muscle, and good flesh are thoroughly assimilated and retained in the system. Samose is not a drug or a stimulant; it is a scientific flesh food that restores thin people to a normal condition of good healthy flesh. These statements are confirmed by Dr. M.L. Ford offering to refund the money to anyone buying and using Samose who does not gain in weight as promised. The risk is all his.
The thin and scrawny can buy Samose at Druggist Dr. M.L. Ford’s store with the knowledge that if it is not successful, it will cost absolutely nothing.

July 1911

90 Years Ago

Evidence of continued increase in the number of ring-necked pheasants in New York as a result of the state’s propagation and distribution efforts is contained in hunter’s reports of game taken as returned on the stubs of their licenses and compiled by clerks in the fish and game division of the Conservation Department. Figures for 1928 and 1929 are now complete. In Otsego County 366 of the birds were taken in 1928 and in 1929, 933 were bagged, an increase of 567. In the entire state, the number jumped from 168,202 in 1928 to 193,870 in 1929, an increase of 25,668.

July 1931

50 Years Ago

A total of 245 Oneonta youths are attending Oneonta City School District summer school classes. A limited program of high school courses, supported by local funds, has 110 students enrolled. Sixty youths are enrolled the three driver education courses. Another 135 students are enrolled in the Title I program, backed by federal funds. Another 75 children are in a summer reading program at the Riverside Elementary school. Twenty-eight children attend a guidance course at the Center Street Elementary building. A senior high course in conservation has an enrollment of 12 students. Six students are receiving speech instruction at Riverside Elementary.

July 1971

40 Years Ago

Stanley Aber’s remedy for downtown Oneonta is a small shopping center for a modest market. “We have to convince people that big is not better,” Aber said. “Small is the way for this city to go. Nothing else will work.” Aber, who heads Saber Development Corporation of New York City, was briefing an informal meeting of the Oneonta Common Council Tuesday on his ideas for a small open-air downtown shopping center. “We don’t want to build a financial fiasco,” he said. Aber said that a proposed $8 million mall for Southside in the Town of Oneonta limits possible tenants for a downtown project. The Southside project is nearly ready to begin construction. A group of local businessmen, calling themselves Citizens Development Corporation of Oneonta, proposes to build a $10 million, multi-level, enclosed mall on the 4.2 acre Broad Street site. Aber said there aren’t enough shoppers in the area to support two large malls. Aber’s plans include one large store and about 10 smaller shops.

July 1981

30 Years Ago

Clifford J. Craven, former president of the State University College at Oneonta, will be recognized for his service when the lounge in Morris Hall is renamed in his honor. The “President Clifford J. Craven Lounge” will be dedicated during a formal ceremony at 4 p.m. Friday. As SUCO president, Craven was responsible for overseeing the renovation of the Morris Hall building which had been a student union and residence hall until 1985. Now known as the Morris Complex, the building has accommodated more than 25,000 conference participants a year, with the lounge serving as a venue for workshops and seminars. Over the years the lounge has hosted politicians, professors, musicians and students, participating in events ranging from class lectures, to debates and public forums, to receptions and recitals. Following a tour as dean of the college and vice-president for academic affairs that began in 1964, Craven became acting SUCO president in 1970, and was then named the college’s fifth president in 1971. He retired in 1987.

July 1991

20 Years Ago

Oneonta High School graduate Jon Connolly debuted as a professional baseball pitcher Thursday, throwing four innings for the Detroit Tigers’ Gulf Coast League team. Connolly, who was selected in the 28th round of June’s amateur baseball draft, started against the Kansas City Royals Gulf Coast team, giving up three hits and two runs.
He recorded no strikeouts and walked no one. The Tigers won the game, 3-2, but Connolly didn’t figure in the decision. Connolly signed with the Tigers on June 26,  shortly after graduating from OHS. The Gulf Coast League is a Single-A league for rookies.

July 2001