Bound Volumes

August 1, 2024

210 YEARS AGO

James Graham was executed at Delhi, Delaware County, on Friday last, pursuant to the sentence of the law, for the murder of Hugh Cameron and Alexander McGillivray in July 1813. He ascended the scaffold with a firm and bold step, and before being turned off, declared, and called God to witness, that he was innocent of the crime; and that if ever a murder was committed in the State of New York, his executioners were now about to commit one. The evidence on his trial, though presumptive, left no doubt on the minds of the court and jury of his guilt.

August 4, 1814

135 YEARS AGO

Five hundred clerks employed in the recently created Pension and Record Division of the War Department have been denied an annual leave of absence. The Secretary says the old soldiers whose claims have accumulated into the thousands have waited long enough and now the clerks must wait. Thirty thousand claims are awaiting the action of the War Department, and it is said there are over 100,000 more pending, which have not yet been referred to the War Department. They have not been referred as it would take months to dispose of those already awaiting action. Eight hundred cases are being returned daily to the Commissioner of Pensions.

August 2, 1889

85 YEARS AGO

Before a large audience of parents, friends, village residents, and the Otsego Lake summer colony, a talented cast selected from the large enrollment at Pathfinders’ Lodge presented Wagner’s opera “The Flying Dutchman,” at the Lodge on the shores of Otsego Lake Saturday night. This is the 22nd season the camp has been conducted under the direction of Miss Valerie Deuscher. The performance Saturday evening was the sixth year that the works of Wagner have been offered. Otsego Lake played an important part in this year’s opera when the Flying Dutchman’s ship appeared bearing the mysterious wanderer and crew to the scene of action and later when the heroine cast herself in the wake of the retreating ship.

August 2, 1939

60 YEARS AGO

The village has paid the final $3,000 installment on $33,000 in bonds issued in 1952 to finance construction of water lines on Irish Hill. It completes payment for a $61,000 project carried out in that section of the village in 1951 which provided village water and sewer services to residents of the area for the first time in history. Prior to that, Irish Hill residents depended upon wells and septic tanks.

July 29, 1964

35 YEARS AGO

There was standing room only at last week’s village planning board meeting when local residents expressed their displeasure over a proposed Pizza Hut to be located on a commercially-zoned lot at 53 Walnut Street. “Why does Pizza Hut want to come to Cooperstown if Cooperstown doesn’t want Pizza Hut?” asked village resident Paula DiPerna. Her question reflected the general attitude of those at the meeting. (Ed. Note: The Pizza Hut went to the Hartwick Commons)

August 2, 1989

20 YEARS AGO

The story behind the 1939 “Centennial of Baseball” stamp will be the topic of the Leatherstocking Stamp Club’s August program. Dr. Roger MacMillan, philatelist and National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum volunteer, recently published an article on the stamp in the summer 2004 edition of “Memories & Dreams” a museum periodical. The 1939 stamp is closely linked to the formation of the stamp club in 1934 which promoted the idea for such a stamp.

July 30, 2004