Bound Volumes

May 9, 2024

160 YEARS AGO

Excerpts from a letter penned by President Abraham Lincoln to A.G. Hodges of Frankfort, Kentucky dated April 4, 1864: “I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power and break the oath in using the power. I understood too, that in ordinary civil administration, this oath, even forbade me to practically indulge my primary, abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery.”

May 6, 1864

110 YEARS AGO

In Our Town—The first cycle car (motorcycle with sidecar), something entirely new in the buzz-cart line, to make its appearance in Cooperstown was a Pioneer, owned by Ralph Flanders, who took advantage of the good roads Sunday to take a trial spin. Mr. Flanders has the agency.
The following notice has been placed in front of one of Cooperstown’s business places where sitters are wont to congregate. “These steps are leased for business purposes and not for the use of sitters and spitters.”

May 6, 1914

85 YEARS AGO

The old Phinney pasture on which Abner Doubleday marked out the first baseball diamond a hundred years ago on Saturday afternoon was visited by a gathering of over 3,500 people to participate in and witness the initial ceremonies of Cooperstown’s season-long celebration of the event which has proven such an important factor in American life – the invention of the national game. They saw the plot which a century ago was on the western outskirts of Cooperstown, now miraculously transformed into a perfect baseball diamond with a modern grandstand completely equipped with all appurtenances for the comfort and conveniences of players and spectators and augmented by encircling bleachers with a seating capacity of 10,000. They saw a surface as smooth and green as a new billiard table, and the setting, amidst gardens, lawns and shade trees, with the village church spires in the distance was one to stir the hearts of visitors and residents alike.

May 10, 1939

60 YEARS AGO

Work will commence this week on development of the vacant lot at the corner of Main and Pioneer Streets into a village park. The Board of Trustees and the Scriven Foundation have approved plans for the project, which will be carried out with funds to be raised by public subscription. No tax monies are involved. The work will be done by Neil R. Neilson, Inc., Oneonta contractor.

May 13, 1964

20 YEARS AGO

Bassett Healthcare’s Junior Volunteer Program is accepting volunteers age 14 and older to donate time to perform important services at the hospital’s Cooperstown facilities during the summer months. The program begins on Tuesday, July 6. Students are asked to donate a total of 50 hours during the seven-week program which concludes on August 20. Parental permission and immunization shots are required.

May 7, 2004