Bound Volumes, Hometown History
July 23, 2026
160 YEARS AGO
Good Luck to Him—We are pleased to chronicle from time to time the doings of our Oneonta boys who have taken up their abode in the west. And, it gives us pleasure at the time to publish the following from the Anamosa “Eureka” newspaper. “At the last session of the District Courts in this place, Gould P. Dietz, Esq. was admitted to the practice of law in the District Courts of the State. His third term as County Clerk will close on the first of January next; and he may be congratulated, after serving the County so well during a period of six years, on entering permanently into the ranks of an honorable profession. (Ed. Note: Anamosa is a town in Iowa, the seat of government in Jones County)
July 1866
135 YEARS AGO
Local News—The house at the Emmons toll gate was entered Thursday evening July 16, and some $15 in money taken. It is suspected that members of the gang of tramps which was in Oneonta last week committed the burglary. A party of four tramps was located near the ice house last week, their plan of operation being to send out one member to beg while the rest remained in hiding. Officers Bradley and O’Brien made a raid Thursday night and after a hard struggle succeeded in capturing two of the vagrants. The prisoners gave their names as Wm. Conway and Frank Dilling. They pled guilty to a charge of intoxication and were given 60 days in the penitentiary by Justice Yager.
The Oneonta Gun Club held its regular weekly shoot at the East End range on Wednesday. The club is steadily gaining in membership and interest. Some good scores have lately been made.
July 1891
110 YEARS AGO
Buffalo Bill—Famous Scout. The time will come, no doubt, when Buffalo Bill, whose name is so closely associated with the history of the west, and the Indian warfare of the borderland, will be a tradition. Today, he is an institution, linking the present with a past that will always stand out as an historic cameo in the “story of the making of the west.” Buffalo Bill belongs to the history of the United States, and no story of the subjugation of the wild Indian tribes is complete without a record of his participation in it. Buffalo Bill was the first to realize the romance and picturesqueness of Indian and cowboy life from an exhibition standpoint and he introduced the life of the mountains and the prairies to the people of the east.
July 1916
50 YEARS AGO
Viking I made America’s first Mars landing look easy, dropping down safely Tuesday on a boulder-strewn plain and sending back stunningly sharp pictures of a landscape resembling the southwestern desert. No Martian creatures were seen stirring among the boulders and dunes. The robot laboratory that will continue a search for Martian life seemed absolutely intact after settling to the plain among boulders that might have been large enough to wreck the lander. It was the first successful touchdown on Mars in history. By coincidence, it was the seventh anniversary of another space milestone—the day man first walked on the moon.
July 1976
30 YEARS AGO
Orpheus Theatre will be raising the curtain on a new home for the season with a production that opens today. The troupe will present “Annie Get Your Gun” at the Goodrich Theater at the State University College at Oneonta. The production will be the first of three at the public college during the next year. After a dozen years at the Oneonta Theatre, 47 Chestnut Street, the decision to move was difficult said Peter Macris, Orpheus founder and producer.
July 1996
