BOUND VOLUMES, July 31, 2014
200 YEARS AGO
James Graham was executed at Delhi, Delaware County, on Friday last, pursuant to the sentence of the law, for the murder of Hugh Cameron and Alexander McGillivray in July 1813. He ascended the scaffold with a firm and bold step, and before being turned off, declared, and called God to witness, that he was innocent of the crime for which he was to suffer; and that if ever a murder was committed in the State of New York, his executioners were now about to commit one. The evidence on his trial, though presumptive, left no doubt on the minds of the court and jury of his guilt.
August 4, 1814
150 YEARS AGO
General Grant opened the siege of Petersburg on Saturday morning by exploding a mine under one of the rebel forts. The fort, mounting sixteen cannon, was blown into the air, and before the enemy had time to rally, our forces made a grand assault upon the rebel lines, carrying three tiers of earthworks. For some time past our sappers and miners have been hard at work undermining the enemy’s entrenchments. On Friday, the engineer in charge reported to Major General Burnside, on whose front the mining operations were perfected, that the work was complete, the magazine being filled up with several tons of powder and everything in readiness for the denouement. At ten minutes to five a cloud of dust was seen rising from the rebel entrenchments. This was followed by a general upheaving of earth which reached probably fifty feet. The whole mass looked like a huge fountain of earth and dust, and formed a most imposing spectacle. Simultaneously with this explosion our batteries along the entire line opened a most murderous and destructive fire upon the rebel breastworks; and the infantry with deafening cheers, rushed into the embankments of the enemy. A constant cannonading lasting one hour and twenty minutes followed.
August 5, 1864
125 YEARS AGO
Five hundred clerks employed in the recently created Pension and Record Division of the War Department have been denied an annual leave of absence. The Secretary says the old soldiers whose claims have accumulated into the thousands have waited long enough and now the clerks must wait. Thirty thousand claims are awaiting the action of the War Department, and it is said there are over 100,000 more pending in the pension office, which have not yet been referred to the War Department. They have not been referred there for the reason that it would take months to dispose of those already awaiting action. Eight hundred cases are being returned daily to the Commissioner of Pensions.
August 2, 1889
100 YEARS AGO
George Hyde Clarke was so closely identified with the life of this village that his residence at the head of the lake seemed always to be included in the friendly environs of Cooperstown. His death is not more deeply mourned by his nearest neighbors than among his wider acquaintance and many intimates in this community. Had he lived until the end of this month, Mr. Clarke would have been 56 years of age. Born in New York City, his early years were divided between the town residence and the ancestral home on Otsego Lake. At the age of 14 he was sent to England where he was educated at the famous Harrow School. Returning to America, he became a law student at the Law School of Columbia University in New York City and was graduated in 1880. His real tastes, however, inclined to agriculture. Having been trained as a scholar, he added practical farming to his accomplishments, and settled down at Hyde Hall as a son of the soil. For the rest of his life, being at once a gentleman and a farmer, he was the better in both characters for being so much in each.
August 5, 1914
75 YEARS AGO
Before a large audience of parents, friends, village residents, and the Otsego Lake summer colony, a talented cast selected from the large enrollment at Pathfinders’ Lodge presented Wagner’s opera “The Flying Dutchman,” at the Lodge on the shores of Otsego Lake Saturday night. This is the 22nd season the camp has been conducted under the direction of Miss Valerie Deuscher. The performance Saturday evening was the sixth year that the works of Wagner have been offered. Otsego Lake played an important part in this year’s opera when the Flying Dutchman’s ship appeared bearing the mysterious wanderer and crew to the scene of action and later when the heroine cast herself in the wake of the retreating ship.
August 2, 1939
50 YEARS AGO
The village has paid the final $3,000 installment on $33,000 in bonds issued in 1952 to finance construction of water lines on Irish Hill. It completes payment for a $61,000 project carried out in that section of the village in 1951 which provided village water and sewer services to residents of the area for the first time in history. Prior to that, Irish Hill residents depended upon wells and septic tanks.
July 29, 1964
25 YEARS AGO
There was standing room only at last week’s village planning board meeting when local residents expressed their displeasure over a proposed Pizza Hut to be located on a commercially-zoned lot at 53 Walnut Street. “Why does Pizza Hut want to come to Cooperstown if Cooperstown doesn’t want Pizza Hut?” asked village resident Paula DiPerna. Her question reflected the general attitude of those at the meeting. (Ed. Note: The Pizza Hut went to the Hartwick Commons)
August 2, 1989
10 YEARS AGO
The story behind the 1939 “Centennial of Baseball” stamp will be the topic of the Leatherstocking Stamp Club’s August program. Dr. Roger MacMillan, philatelist and National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum volunteer, recently published an article on the stamp in the summer 2004 edition of “Memories & Dreams” a museum periodical. The 1939 stamp is closely linked to the formation of the stamp club in 1934 which promoted the idea for such a stamp.
July 30, 2004