Bound Volumes

February 8, 2024

110 YEARS AGO

Last week The Freeman’s Journal published an article which previously appeared in the Schenevus Monitor, stating that Billy Mills, a former well-known baseball player in this vicinity, was dying of consumption in the Alms House at Rome. Billy received a copy of the paper containing his death notice and he was very much pleased with the sympathy which was being wasted upon him. In a denial published in the Rome Sentinel he claims to be very much alive and is making plans to play ball during the coming summer. Mills is quartered at the Oneida County Hospital, not the County Home, and is receiving treatment for a mild form of tuberculosis. Mills’ health began to fail last September and gradually worsened until he began taking treatment in the hospital. Since then he has nearly regained his normal weight of 150 pounds.

February 4, 1914

85 YEARS AGO

President Roosevelt pays tribute to General Doubleday—Speaking as “one of the fans,” President Roosevelt sent a message to the New York Chapter Baseball Writers Dinner at the Commodore Hotel Sunday night: “We should be grateful,” he wrote, “to Abner Doubleday: Little did he, or the group that was with him at Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1839 realize the boon they were giving the nation in devising baseball. The rules of the game have changed since Doubleday and his associates formulated them a century ago, but baseball, through all changes and chances, has grown steadily in popular favor, and remains today the great American sport, with its fans counted by the millions. Gen. Doubleday was a distinguished soldier both in the Mexican and Civil Wars. But his part in giving us baseball—he was a youth of twenty at the time—shows again that peace has her victories no less renowned than war. Please extend to all the diners hearty greetings from one of the fans. Franklin D. Roosevelt.”

February 8, 1939

60 YEARS AGO

A $100,000 item appears in the state’s 1964 budget designated for use in getting work started on a new State Park along the shores of Hyde Bay on Otsego Lake. The Division of Parks will use it for “limited development of only such essential utilities as water supply, sanitary facilities, power, roads and parking that are absolutely necessary for day use (beach, swimming and picnicking). During the first year, the Division hopes to have erected a temporary bathhouse and comfort station, and some improvement to a proposed $5,000 bathing beach stretching northward along the bay above the mouth of Shadow Brook.

February 5, 1964

35 YEARS AGO

Members of the Schuyler Lake Fire Department discovered the body of William Reynolds of Richfield Springs, who fell through the ice thinned by warm weather on Canadarago Lake last week. The search for Reynolds lasted almost three days with about 100 workers and special equipment brought in. Last Wednesday, Reynolds left his home on State Hwy. 28 to take a walk on the ice with his pet poodle Andy. When the dog returned a short time later soaking wet, neighbors went to look for Reynolds. Cries for help were heard by the initial searchers, but no one was able to spot him.

February 8, 1989

20 YEARS AGO

Violations of the Cooperstown Central School’s Athletic Code of Conduct have forced six of the school’s nine winter sports teams to play short-handed. CCS Superintendent Mary Jo McPhail refused to say how many students were involved in the infractions but the sanctions have affected both varsity and junior varsity squads. Unofficial sources say that affected students attended a party at which drugs, alcohol and tobacco were used.

February 6, 2004