Bound Volumes, Hometown History
February 12, 2026
135 YEARS AGO
From Washington, D.C.—Little Mrs. Ye, the Corean Minister’s wife, is a tiny, dark-eyed, solemn-looking woman. She is a favorite in Washington society and is undeniably pretty. As a matter of fact the ladies of the Asiatic legations are usually very good looking, while the men are often as ugly as men can be. Mr. Ye’s beauty is not enhanced by the practice he makes of wearing on every possible occasion a queer glazed hat strapped tightly under his chin.
Local—Perhaps the only living moose now in the State of New York, either wild or captive, has been purchased by Geo. I. Wilber for the park and is now in that gentleman’s stables in this village, having been brought from Boston about a week ago. The animal, which is native to Nova Scotia, though not quite two years old, weighs nearly 700 pounds.
February 1891
110 YEARS AGO
Edwin R. Moore of Oneonta, a college Junior, is national newspaper publicity secretary of the Pioneers of America, a national organization for boys between the ages of 9 and 12, recently founded by Hamilton College students. The organization has as its purpose the training of boys for the Boy Scouts and the instilling in them of principles of allaround manliness. The movement is rapidly growing. With the cooperation of the Board of Education eight troops are being conducted in the public schools of Utica. Mr. Moore and Robb S. MacKie, well known in Oneonta, are in charge of the largest troop in the country at school 21. An effort will soon be made to start troops in Oneonta.
February 1916
40 YEARS AGO
The U.S. Treasury Department will mail 535 very special tax refund checks Friday—the first ones ever produced by a new electronic system that allows the filing and processing of returns—untouched by human hands. If the pilot project goes well, within a few years most individuals and corporations may be able to file returns via computer and telephone lines and have any refund deposited electronically to their bank accounts.
February 1986
30 YEARS AGO
A telecommunications overhaul bill currently before Congress would authorize communications companies, such as television broadcasters and cable concerns, long distance telephone and computer network companies to offer the public multiple services for individual use including entertainment and other programming, shopping through a television set, or even medical services and advice as well as person to person communication and message transmission. The bill’s deregulation provisions will affect only 20 percent of current cable subscribers initially. However, by 1999 all cable providers will be deregulated although a small cable provider could be relieved of restrictive regulations if a telephone company enters their territory.
February 1996
