Bound Volumes
Compiled by Tom Heitz/SHARON STUART, with resources
courtesy of The Fenimore Art Museum Research Library
210 YEARS AGO
Quoted from the London Courier – “It is well known to the world that his majesty’s government (partly from the contempt in which it has held the men who have so disgracefully conducted public affairs in America) have not heretofore thought it expedient to resent their marked ill will and injurious acts towards Great Britain. These provocations on the one side, and forbearance on the other, have served only to encourage their aggravated repetition, until at length the American government has ventured to commit a direct act of war. It is fully ascertained that the action with the Little Belt was not accidental, but the consequence of special orders from the American government intended to produce an action with a British ship of war. What have the advocates of these republicans to say now?”
August 10, 1811
185 YEARS AGO
The indications of popular sentiment in all quarters of the Union, are decidedly favorable to an increase of the democratic strength. The jugglery and cheater of the leaders of the coalition of federalists, nullifiers, and anti-masons, only serve to give additional energy to men of honest principle, and in Vermont, Delaware and Maryland – states heretofore under the yoke of bondage to federalism, there is good grounds for believing that the democratic tickets for presidential electors will be successful. In Otsego, we do know of numerous accessions to the good cause, by which the majority will be very considerably increased.
August 15, 1836
160 YEARS AGO
Otsego is not to be altogether unrepresented on the battlefield. Within the past few weeks quite a number of army recruits have been obtained in this county. On Wednesday morning, about 40 men left this village to form a company in the Van Guard Rifle Regiment. Previous to their departure they were addressed in a neat and patriotic speech by L.J. Walworth, Esq. They were mostly from Milford, Laurens and Fly Creek. The officers are: H.S. Chatfield, Captain; F.D. Slocum, Lieutenant; and Nelson Bowdish, Ensign. They are to go immediately into camp on Staten Island. On the same day Lieutenant Herington of the regular army passed through here with about 50 recruits mostly obtained in Oneonta and that vicinity.
August 16, 1861
135 YEARS AGO
Sixty years produce a great change in the life of an individual, and the village of Cooperstown with its surroundings has in that time undergone a great change. Natural growth, intellectual development, with many other influences, change the man from youth into a condition of grave thoughts, a weakened body, and a rather somber look.
But it is not so with the growth, development and changes of a place like Cooperstown. It looks more youthful, more attractive, more cheerful than it did sixty years ago. It seems to be just getting out of its teens, putting, assuming the grace and dignity of a well bred and cultivated town, and having no thought of growing old, somber, or sinking into a state of desuetude. Cooperstown is is a garden full of luxuries; it has many trees of goodly fruit. It has a lake of unrivaled beauty, fringed with mosaic hills, and circled with a carriage road surpassing in picturesqueness any road in this land. It has church and educational influences of the highest order. Nature, art and wealth are making of Cooperstown a Garden of Eden.
August 14, 1886
85 YEARS AGO
Miss Ruth Thompson, formerly of the grand opera company at the world famous La Scala in Milan and now a member of the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York City, is to give a concert at the Holiday House of St. Christina School at Five Mile Point on Monday evening, August 17. The various offerings, which will include numbers from roles which Miss Thompson has sung in Milan, Rome and Naples, and which she is scheduled to sing this coming season at the Metropolitan, will be presented in costume and with scenic effects suited to the music.
August 12, 1936
60 YEARS AGO
Richfield Springs is a beehive of activity these days as everyone is preparing for the huge centennial celebration, August 24-27, according to event co-chairmen Burrill W. House and John A. Losee. Pre-celebration activities will include the Grand Centennial Cotillion Ball to be held at Canadarago Park Skating Pavilion on Tuesday, August 22. The Centennial will open on August 24 with the crowning of the Centennial Queen with her court. This will be followed with a flower show, window displays and a carnival in Spring Park. Special exhibits, baseball games and the Centennial Parade, the largest ever planned in Richfield, will follow during the weekend.
August 16, 1961
35 YEARS AGO
If you want to talk with someone who is genial, charming, a great human being, and a devoted fan of the New York Yankees, visit Sam Sapienza, who can usually be found near the front window of the Short Stop restaurant on Main Street. This November, Sam will mark 65 years working in the restaurant business in Cooperstown dating back to 1921 when his father established the business on the ground floor while the family, including Sam, two brothers and a sister, lived upstairs. Since 1951, when his father retired, Sam has conducted the business.
August 13, 1986
20 YEARS AGO
The Cooperstown Graduate Program of SUNY-Oneonta has received a $5,000 grant from the New York State Council on the Humanities. This grant will be used for several programs in October focusing on tuberculosis. CGP is developing a national traveling exhibition that will exhibit at two venues in New York. The exhibit, titled “Can I Catch It? Tuberculosis in America,” is scheduled to open in September 2002.
August 10, 2001