Bound Volumes

August 4, 2022

135 YEARS AGO
We had occasion to step into the telephone office with a friend on Sunday last, when to our surprise we found counselor Brooks in charge. He was busily engaged in pulling out some stops and shoving in others, occasionally shouting “Hello!” and trying to hold a conversation with some party who must have thought that lightning had played mischief with the wires near Cooperstown. It was very warm in the office, and the new operator sweat like a man hoeing corn. He explained by saying: “Brady has stepped out for a few minutes and left me in charge.” After another ineffectual effort to find out “what the other fellow wanted,” he discontinued operations by shouting back: “If you are not drunk at that end of the line, just hold on about five minutes longer, and your wants will receive attention.”

August 5, 1887

110 YEARS AGO
Charles Mason and Charles Root, general manager and office boy respectively of the Otsego Lake Transit Company were at work Sunday afternoon in the company’s offices at the foot of Fair Street when the telephone rang vigorously. It was Lakewood Cemetery explaining that someone was in danger of drowning near the east shore. Mason and Root hurried out of the office and started for the area in the Wah-ta-wah. Approaching the new cemetery dock they saw a rowboat in the trough of the waves. Drawing nearer they saw body of a man lying in the bottom of the boat, which was almost half full of water. Mason jumped into the rowboat and paddled it ashore; the stranger lay apparently dead in the bottom of the craft. In pulling the body out of the boat onto the shore Mason detected a faint odor of liquor. Root arrived on the scene and together they endeavored to bring the stranger to consciousness (they were Boy Scouts in their younger days). At last their efforts were rewarded by a grunt and a little later the man turned and opened his eyes.

July 31, 1912

85 YEARS AGO
This summer Arthur J. Telfer will celebrate his fiftieth year as a professional photographer in Cooperstown. To make this even more unusual, he is still doing business in the same building in which he started. Mr. Telfer was born in Cooperstown on April 23, 1859, on Elm Street, but soon afterwards with his family, moved to Burlington where he spent his boyhood. When he was 21 years old he learned the trade of photography in Hoboken, N.J. Shortly after that he returned to live with his parents in Burlington where he set up his first skylight studio and started to earn his livelihood. He photographed nearly everyone in the surrounding territory, and people came for miles to have their pictures taken.

August 4, 1937

60 YEARS AGO
Bonnie Boyd and Joanne Winnie, both of Fly Creek, were chosen as the two 4-H girls from Otsego County to participate in the New York State Exposition Dress Revue on August 31. The girls participated in a Dress Revue at the Farmers’ Museum Junior Show last week which drew 105 girls over 12-years-old. The highlight of the evening was the selection of the two State Exposition participants.

August 1, 1962

22 YEARS AGO
The Cooperstown Pony League’s squad of 15-year-olds stormed through the regular season, going undefeated and claiming Otsenango League Division A title before dropping their final game against the Bainbridge Braves by an 11-8 score. “They were a wonderful bunch of kids to coach these last few years,” Coach Jim Knodel said. Eddie Bauer, Rob Knodel, Brad Kukenberger and Ian McGillivray were All-Stars.

August 2, 2002