Bound Volumes, Hometown History
June 12, 2025
135 YEARS AGO
The Local News—A serious runaway occurred at the Junction Wednesday morning. The horse of a gentleman named Webster became frightened by a passing train and ran into the wagon of Dr. Parish. Webster was thrown out and badly cut and bruised about the head. F.M. Fox, who was in the wagon with Webster, had his shoulder dislocated.
A workman named Murdock, employed on the Normal grounds, met with a severe accident yesterday. The head of a heavy maul wielded by another laborer came off the handle and struck Murdock just above the knee. The blow was a severe one, and spasms followed. After a time the injured man partially recovered and was carried to his boarding place on Otsego Street.
The funeral services of Dr. Harter on Saturday last were largely attended. The funeral sermon was preached by Rev. McAnulty, who took for his theme, “The Beloved Physician.” At Hartwick, Dr. Harter’s former residence, the casket was again opened that his many friends in his old home might look once more on his face. The interment was in the family cemetery at Richfield.
June 1890
70 YEARS AGO
Those graduating from Oneonta’s State Teachers College include: Alvin Westcott, Oneonta, Cynthia Hort, Sydney, Leona Severance, Oneonta, Sylvia Larson, Schenevus, Kathryn Littlejohn, Unadilla, Mary Lebenick, New Berlin, Donald Newell, Cooperstown, Louise Knapp, Oneonta, Janet Sovocool, Oneonta, Portia Cavanagh, Oneonta, Jacqueline Walling, Oneonta, William Nagle, Schenevus, Joan Molinari, Oneonta, Paul Retrovato, New Berlin, Jean Davis, Unadilla, Betty Chicorelli, Hartwick, Robert Breffle, Oneonta, Nancy Crichfield, Oneonta, Raymond Hodges, Oneonta, Nellie Spencer, Cherry Valley, Jennette Clark, Otego, Patricia Shaver, Margaretville, Marian Umbach, Schenevus, Rose Smith, Richfield Springs, Patricia Delameter, Margaretville, David House, Oneonta, Jean Hillson, Stamford, Margaret Sawyer, Oneonta, William Carow, Oneonta, Edna Blake, Oneonta, Barbara Knapp, Maryland, Margaret Mathews, Oneonta, Kenneth Weatherly, Oneonta, Mary Slavin, Oneonta, Phyllis Schnepp, Walton, and Barbara Monson, Edmeston.
June 1955
40 YEARS AGO
Religious leaders shook Bibles in one another’s faces on Monday as they debated the necessity of a gay high school with fundamentalists calling for its closing and liberal Methodists claiming it is “part of the ministry of our church.” “This school should be shut down. There should not be such a school,” said Jesse Lee, pastor of the non-denominational Neighborhood Church in Greenwich Village. “Homosexuality is a terrible thing to have to live with…homosexuality has caused nothing but heartbreak and pain down through the ages,” he said. Lee was among a group of religious leaders from the Family Defense Coalition who called a news conference on the steps of the Washington Square United Methodist Church in the village which houses the Harvey Milk School, named in honor of the gay San Francisco city supervisor gunned down in 1978.
June 1985
30 YEARS AGO
Troop exercises during nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s were designed to convince soldiers their fear of radiation was irrational and to give them an “emotional vaccination,” according to recently declassified Pentagon records. Soldiers were deliberately exposed to radiation during exercises starting in 1951 at the Nevada nuclear test range. Citing publicity about the effects of nuclear radiation on Atom bomb survivors at Hiroshima, Pentagon officials sought to counteract fears about radiation among American soldiers. No consideration was given to the long-term effects.
June 1995
