BOUND VOLUMES

Compiled by Tom Heitz and SHARON STUART, with resources courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library

200 YEARS AGO

Lost at the last annual cattle show and fair at Cooperstown, a Pocket Book, containing eight dollars in bills; one note of hand against Sylvanus Campbell for eight dollars and fifty cents, dated about two years ago; three notes against E. Cumpston, at Schoharie, of different dates; and two receipts against William Scott, of Oxford. Whoever will return said Pocket Book and the contents, shall be handsomely rewarded by the subscriber. Judah Waters, Jun.

Turnpike in Otsego – An application will be made to the Legislature at the next Session for a law authorizing the building of a Turnpike Road from the second great western Turnpike in the Town of Edmeston at or near Martin Lee’s dwelling house in the county of Otsego, through Burlington, Exeter, Plainfield, and Richfield, in the most proper place to intersect the Hamilton and Skeneateles turnpike at or near Jeremiah Meacham’s in Richfield.

January 4, 1819

175 YEARS AGO

“Time and Tide wait for no man” – Another year has made us all older, if not better, than we were. And, in entering upon a new one, it is fitting that gratitude should fill our hearts for comforts enjoyed and blessings received. With such a feeling, and without ill will toward any of the human family, we tender to our readers the compliments of the season, wishing them collectively and individually prosperity and happiness.

James L. Edson of Milford, is requested to call at this office and take away some Theatre bills he caused to be printed about three months since, or something may be said and done about the transaction, not much to his credit.

The robber of the trunk from Pomeroy & Co. has not yet been discovered. But it is stated that there is some clue which will lead to a discovery.

January 1, 1844 

150 YEARS AGO

The Indians – A distinguished Army officer who has become acquainted by actual service with the character, temper and necessities of the Indian tribes, says in a private letter: “The military do not want charge of the Indians, but it is a necessity that they should have it if the Indians are to be saved from extermination. The settlers will attend to that in time if matters rest where they are. The Indians must be protected from the white man and the whites must also be protected from the Indian. Only troops can perform such service, and to do it well they must not be embarrassed or controlled by a Bureau under a different head, whose ideas work through entirely different channels from those of the military.” These are very sensible views, but they are not likely to find favor with the Agents, Superintendents and other appointees of the Indian Bureau – nor with certain Senators in Congress said to be in league with these fellows.

January 1, 1869 

125 YEARS AGO

100 YEARS AGO

Before the war and up until the word was passed along that Uncle Sam had selected him to chase the Kaiser, Tim O’Connor was a printer in the Office of The Freeman’s Journal, where his honesty of purpose, coupled with a rare quality of keen Irish wit endeared him to his fellow workers. He changed the printer’s apron for the khaki last spring and in due time went across. He went “over the top” four times without a scratch. He did, however, gain twenty pounds in weight and a lot of experience. He writes: “Dear Mother, Now, it is all over, there will be no more ‘over the top’ and ‘at them boys,’ no more shells or machine gun bullets to duck – and to think I came through it all without a scratch – but I had a lot of narrow escapes. But a miss is as good as a mile. I have been ‘over the top’ four times in all and I also took part in that last big famous American push, just before the Germans gave up.”

January 1, 1919

75 YEARS AGO

The casual peace-time connotation of the phrase “Happy New Year,” is entirely out of focus at the beginning of the year 1944 with the armies of the United States and her Allies arrayed on or behind the lines of a dozen fighting fronts about the world. To the whole world the phrase, above everything else, means the coming of the end of the war in Europe at least in the next twelve months. Think of the thousands of our own sons, brothers, husbands, daughters and sisters, now serving in Italy, North Africa and England, and also in the Pacific, and what it will mean to them when they know that Hitler has been defeated and that that phase of the war is ended. The year has opened with assurances from many high quarters that just that will take place in 1944. Who has the heart to let them down? May it be a Happy New Year!

January 5, 1944

50 YEARS AGO

Otsego Lake went into the deep-freeze Christmas night, and by Thursday morning its surface was completely covered with ice. December 26 is the earliest closing date for the lake in 13 years. The wind died down late Christmas afternoon and during the night the temperature plunged to a frigid 25 below zero in Springfield at the northern end of the lake and to 14 below at the weather station in Cooperstown. The lake was ice-bound for 94 days a year ago. It opened on April 5.

January 1, 1969

25 YEARS AGO

In action at Bursey Gymnasium on December 28 and 29, the CCS Redskins won the Booster Club Boys’ Basketball Tourney for the fifth time in twelve years with a hard fought 58-51 win over the Yellowjackets of Oneonta. It was junior Justin Smith’s defensive block of a Quame Patterson shot that turned back a spirited Oneonta rally in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter. As Patterson penetrated the Redskins’ zone and went up for a 15-foot jumper that would have knotted the score at 53-all with less than a minute remaining, the 6’2” Smith rose to the occasion and stuffed the 5’ 11” guard’s shot cleanly.

January 4, 1994

10 YEARS AGO

Look at the folio line at the top of this page:  Volume 200, No. 1. With this edition, The Freeman’s Journal marks the beginning of its 200th year as chronicler of Cooperstown in the making.  Very few newspapers in the U.S. have made it so far. For two centuries, this newspaper has been Cooperstown’s companion, creating a record of our common life, some of it statistical –  births, deaths, the annual date of Otsego Lake’s freezing – some of it high drama, much of it of high literary merit.

January 4, 2008