BOUND VOLUMES

June 6, 2019

200 YEARS AGO

Sacket’s Harbor – Melancholy. On Thursday last, the unlawful discharge of a musket in this village called together a number of citizens – and sad to relate – upon enquiry, it appeared that a Mr. Walter Hanson, had, by the means of his foot, discharged the contents of a musket through his head, and was then expiring. After his decease, a jury of inquest was called, who found a verdict of self-murder, while insane. The circumstances of this affair are truly melancholy.
On Wednesday, he made an observation to the family in which he boarded that there must be something done – he could not live so, that he had been accused of things of which he was innocent, and stated further, that he had seen those accusations in the public paper, which on examination could not be found. In the evening he appeared more composed, and the next morning was spent in writing and adjusting his attire, apparently to render his person decent. On examination, a written “confession” was found with him, in which he enumerates the several charges brought against him, to all of which he pleads not guilty, save one, which was a false oath taken at Brownville, for which he says “I die.”

June 7, 1819

175 YEARS AGO

“Equal Laws, Equal Privileges” is the motto of every opponent of tyranny, and the cardinal maxim of every admirer of our country. While it is strictly adhered to in its true spirit, the machinery of government cannot work to any general ill. But once forgotten or departed from in the most trivial instance, and it opens a door to oppressions, monstrous, insufferable, the natural resistance to which floods the land with civil discord, and covers the nation with regret and mortification. It would be every man’s duty to maintain his fellow’s rights and for this excellent reason – the very moment we admit that he may be molested for differing in his tenets from ourselves, we inevitably admit that we may be proscribed in our own for differing from others.

June 3, 1844

150 YEARS AGO

The case of “The People vs. Miss Harriet Rose” of Exeter, indicted for assault and battery in school, in severely whipping and injuring the child of R.P. Brooks. The assault was committed over two years ago and Miss Rose has before been tried for the offense but the jury disagreed. Upon re-trial, the case was well prepared by the District Attorney and by Mssrs. Lynes and Bowen, and very ably summed up by Judge Earl for the defendant, and Mr. Smith for the people. After being out about fifteen minutes, the jury acquitted Miss Rose. We do not censure them for it. The poor boy is now a mere wreck. But, Miss Rose has in these two trials been severely punished. If the child’s dreadful state is, as was claimed on the trial as a result of the whipping, how terrible the punishment to any woman of the least heart. Let this case teach the Teachers of Otsego County not to whip little children severely, if at all, for trivial offenses, and to be careful when administering corporal punishment to control their tempers, and never to strike a child about the head, and never to use an instrument which may easily, even by accident, maim or injure a child.

June 4, 1869

100 YEARS AGO

The Playgrounds Committee of the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce signed a lease for two years of the Phinney lot in this village for use as a baseball diamond and playgrounds. Thus, the original baseball diamond of America will soon respond with the crack of the bat and ball. An appeal for volunteer labor will be made and the diamond placed in condition at once for games this summer. Since the purchase of the old ball grounds for a hospital site, Cooperstown has been without a baseball diamond and necessarily without a baseball team.
That such a condition should exist in the birthplace of the national game was not deemed proper and the Chamber of Commerce at once took the matter up with the result that local talent will be furnished with a suitable field for their efforts. The suggestion has been made that the local grounds be made a national baseball park and if possible a game be played here each year between National and American League teams.

June 4, 1919

75 YEARS AGO

A thrill ran through Cooperstown Tuesday morning as rising listeners heard their radio announcers detailing the first moves of the invasion of the continent of Europe, which had then been in progress for several hours. Although the news had been expected for weeks, and although there was always behind it the realization of the terrific cost in lives that must be paid in this final step toward complete victory over the Nazi enslavers of mankind, it brought a decided lift to the morale of the community. There were no jubilant demonstrations, but a feeling tense excitement could be discerned wherever one went, or wherever two or more people met. The tedium of waiting was gone at last, and we were hearing the story of real action.

June 7, 1944

50 YEARS AGO

Joseph M. Clancy has sold the Doubleday Restaurant on Main Street to Louis J. Bobnick of this village. Mr. Bobnick took over operation of the restaurant this past weekend. Mr. Clancy said he would open a catering service on or about July 1. Mr. Clancy purchased the Doubleday from William J. Grady on May 15, 1957. The Doubleday was first opened as a restaurant in the 1920s by the late Owen G. Clark and was known as Clark’s during his tenure. It was sold in 1940 to Edwin Weegar until purchased by Mr. Grady.

June 4, 1969

25 YEARS AGO

Paula DiPerna of Cooperstown, author, film producer and environmental policy analyst, has been appointed by Mario Cuomo as a member of the College Council of the State University College at Oneonta. DiPerna’s most recent book, “His Wife’s Version: The Discoveries of Mrs. Christopher Columbus,” is due for release by Permanent Press in the fall of 1994.

June 7, 1994

10 YEARS AGO

Joe Vezza, a Utica native, has been operating New York Pizzeria, 37 Main St., Richfield Springs, since 1996, and that was his sole enterprise for 13 years.
Then, on Jan. 1, he bought the adjoining Chef Diner.
Now, on June 1, he bought Tino’s Pizza, 75 Chestnut St., Cooperstown, from Tino Garufi.
Joe was only 22 when he heard the Richfield Springs pizzeria was for sale, and he and his mother, Giovanna, bought it from Lorenzo Pumilia.

June 5, 2009