BOUND VOLUMES, July 17, 2014

200 YEARS AGO
William Cheney informs his friends and the public in general, that he will communicate to any person, the art of breaking horses or cattle, so that they may be made docile and gentle, or will break them himself for a reasonable compensation. He can inform any person, so that they will be enabled to break a Horse, that can be rode, in the space of one hour – even the wildest that can be produced. His terms can be known by calling on him.
Oaks Creek, July 20, 1814.
July 21, 1814

175 YEARS AGO
An Interesting Incident: While taking his breakfast on a visit in New York City, President Van Buren was informed that an old lady, upwards of one hundred years of age, was present and anxious to see him. Upon this, the President left the table and went into the hall to invite her into the room. It appeared that she is in her 104th year. Her name is Hannah Gouge, and she lives at 135 Reade Street. She said she had seen every President of the United States and had shaken hands with Washington and was quite delighted to see the present incumbent. She walked without assistance from her residence, but was escorted back by Robt. W. Bowyer, Esq.
July 15, 1839

150 YEARS AGO
Lakewood Cemetery – Excerpts from the Eighth Annual Report of the Trustees. The grounds as originally laid out are so rapidly filling up that new plots will soon be required to meet the demands of the community. Since the last annual report 26.5 lots have been sold and 28.5 graded and put in order besides many minor improvements which have been made on others. The present number of lot owners is 199 and the number of lots sold is 276.25; of these 206 have been graded. The total number of interments made since the opening of the Cemetery is 348, of which 196 have been removals from other grounds. During the past year there have been 27 burials and 58 re-interments.
July 22, 1864

125 YEARS AGO
For The Ladies: Is the health of the future mothers of the country being ruined by the modern demands of education? To get a medical opinion on this question I asked one of the woman physicians whose practice lies almost entirely among women and among growing girls thinking she would be the first to notice it and cry out against it. There is no trained observer in the country who has given more attention to the health conditions of women than Dr. Lucy M. Hall, who is resident physician and assistant professor of physiology at Vassar College. “Have you found that the girl who wishes to study is, as a rule, physically injured by the strain of the so-called higher education? She answered: “Rules are hard to formulate, because everything depends on the individual; but in general, it is safe to say that the health of college girls averages better than that of girls out of school and without occupation. College work is often a good physical tonic.”
July 19, 1889

100 YEARS AGO
The 57th Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of Lakewood Cemetery shows the total number of lots sold since the opening of the cemetery to be 733.75 and the number of interments made 2,920, of which 544 were removed from other grounds. During the past year 44 interments were made. There were 12 bodies placed in the vault during the winter. The treasurer’s report shows receipts of $3,453.48 and disbursements of $3,285.58 during the past year. At the meeting of lot owners, Charles T. Brewer, Fred L. Quaif and Waldo C. Johnston were elected trustees to serve three years.
July 15, 1914

75 YEARS AGO
Volunteer firemen from a Central New York area of 100-miles radius are doing honor to the Cooperstown Baseball Centennial and Major General Abner Doubleday whose invention of the game of baseball in Cooperstown gave impetus for the ambitious undertaking of an all-summer program celebrating 100 years of baseball. Friday, July 22, is Firemen’s Day and plans call for a gigantic parade in which 1,100 fire fighters will be seen in line with equipment. At Doubleday Field the day will be topped off with a baseball game between two of the fastest colored teams in the east, the Mohawk Colored Giants and the Havana Cubans.
July 19, 1939

50 YEARS AGO
State Comptroller Arthur Levitt said this week that civil rights should not be an issue in the forthcoming national election. Speaking at the 49th annual convention of the New York State Election Commissioners Association at the Hotel Otesaga, Mr. Levitt called for a bipartisan approach to civil rights. “No thinking person would want either party to flounder over such an issue as civil rights,” he said. “There is a place for both partisanship and bi-partisanship in our system of government.”
July 15, 1964

25 YEARS AGO
Sam Hoskins and his boys, Matt and Andy, have a barn full of pheasant chicks in Fly Creek. The chicks, all 75, came by mail from Iowa. They were shipped on one day and arrived the next day, one-day old. The young pheasants are from the Cooperative Extension Program. The boys will raise them and when they are eight to ten weeks old the pheasants will be released. The Hoskins’ boys are the only Fly Creekers with pheasants this year. Altogether, 1,630 baby pheasants were given to 21 families in Otsego County.
Hugh MacDougall has recently published a booklet titled “Cooper’s Otsego County – A Bicentennial Guide of Sites in Otsego County Associated with the Life and Fiction of James Fenimore Cooper, 1789-1851.” Hugh compiled this book to celebrate Cooper’s 200th birthday.
Recent guests at the home of Gerry and Dufie Bushnell on Walnut St. is their daughter Prudence and her husband, Richard Buckley, of Reston, Virginia. Prudence and Richard leave this month for Senegal, West Africa, where Prudence will serve as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Dakar.
July 19, 1989