Bound Volumes
December 19, 2024
185 YEARS AGO
What is a Loco Foco? A democrat, a benevolent, kind-hearted, honest man – a lover of the human race – one who is happy where others are happy – who despises all aristocracy, all tyranny over the minds of men – one who respects the industrious poor man as much as he does the rich man, (and more, if he be more honest) – one in favor of having the workman paid when he has earned his money – against such shaving banks as favor the rich and withhold favors from the poor – in favor of men being honest; enterprising in taking a wife if one chooses, and rearing the children in the way they should go, in the path of honor and duty. Such is a genuine loco foco.
December 23, 1839
110 YEARS AGO
In Our Town – A basketball team representing Alpha Sigma fraternity of Colgate University defeated the Cooperstown High School team in an interesting contest at the Village Hall Saturday evening by the score of 68 to 37.
December 16, 1914
85 YEARS AGO
Letter from S. Klaus to R.D. Spraker, Mayor of Cooperstown dated Labrador, December 16, 1939: “Dear Sprake: Glad to be in your town again this year. Just hopped over here from Labrador; natives all peaceful and quiet. Beats all, the more that folks get civilized, the less they know about governing themselves; all the time inventin’ things to blow up one another with. Anan. Came to Rum Hill and camped out in Uncle Phil’s shack. My reindeer Blitzen had a romance up there last year with a wild one and some of the team got skeered at the ski jumpers over thother side of the hill and the autymobiles. Hear that Romano is trying to get somebody to dress up in some red pants and whiskers and imitate me. I do not approve of them phony Santa Clauses. Tell the kids to be good chillun and I’ll be seein’ ‘em. Yrs. Trooly, S.Klaus. Postscript: Glasses broke, so can’t spell very good. Hafta C. Kay while I am here.”
December 20, 1939
60 YEARS AGO
Douglas K. Walrath, 32, of Cooperstown, was named Monday night by the Board of Trustees to succeed Newton E.D. Gilmore as Village Clerk and Treasurer when the latter retires after 23 years on the job. Mr. Walrath will join the village staff on February 1 to undergo a four-month training program under Mr. Gilmore’s direction. Mr. Walrath, a village native, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Douglas O. Walrath of this village. He graduated from Cooperstown Central School and Ithaca College. He is a combat veteran of the Korean War and a recipient of the Purple Heart.
December 16, 1964
35 YEARS AGO
Eight months after plans were presented for a Pizza Hut for 53 Walnut Street, the Village Planning Board unanimously rejected the development plans. Village Planning Board member Michael Jerome moved for the rejection of the plans, offered by Fugate Enterprises of Wichita, Kansas, based on a number of elements under the village zoning ordinance. “The proposed use, a high-volume restaurant, will adversely affect the safety and welfare of the general public,” Jerome’s motion read in part, “and is not in the best interest of the neighborhood which is residential.”
December 20, 1989
20 YEARS AGO
Jeffrey Idelson, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s vice-president of communications and education, was named the 2004 winner of the Robert O. Fishel Award for Public Relations Excellence by Major League Baseball at the Anaheim Marriott during professional baseball’s annual winter meetings. “At first, I was in disbelief,” Idelson said. Idelson joined the Hall of Fame staff in 1994.
December 17, 2004
