BOUND VOLUMES
October 15, 2020
200 YEARS AGO
Advertisement – Six Cents Reward – Runaway from the service of the Subscriber on September 28 last, a black boy named Sanders. All persons are hereby forbid harboring or trusting said boy on my account. Six cents will be given for his apprehension and return to me, but no charges please. Springfield, October 7, 1820.
Advertisement – Five Cents Reward. Runaway from the service of the Subscriber on the sixth, inst., an indented apprentice, named Israel Hinds Gibbs, aged about 18 years. All persons are hereby forbid harboring or trusting said runaway on my account, as I will not pay any debts of his contracting. The above reward will be given for his apprehension and delivery to me, but no charges paid. Ezra Stetson, Otsego, October 4, 1820.
October 15, 1820
175 YEARS AGO
A Giant at Last – In exhuming of late the remains of so many wonderful, large animals unknown to the present age, it has been supposed the ancient race of men must have been correspondingly as large. At length we have something to sustain the doctrine. The Madison Banner states on the most reliable authority, that a person in Franklin County Tennessee, while digging a well, a few weeks since, found a human skeleton, at the depth of fifty feet, which measures eighteen feet in length. The immense frame was entire with an unimportant exception in one of the extremities. It has been visited by several of the principal members of the medical faculty in Nashville, and pronounced unequivocally by all the skeleton of a huge man. The bones of the thigh measured five feet and it was computed that the height of the living man, making the proper allowance for muscles, must have been at least twenty feet. The finder had been offered $8,000 for it, but had determined not to sell it at any price until first exhibiting it for 12 months. He is now having the different parts wired together for this purpose.
October 18. 1845
150 YEARS AGO
Small Manufacturers – It may be a long time before we see any large manufacturing interest started here. In the meantime it is well to encourage the location in our village of persons engaged in some of the many smaller manufacturing enterprises of the day. Newell & Company’s establishment has in it ten or twelve men, besides double that number constantly engaged on buildings about town. Siver & Bixby, in their artificial teeth manufactory, employ seven or eight persons and turn out 500 teeth a day, which find a market all over the country. They rent the upper stories of a building which otherwise might stand vacant. Mechanics and operatives in such concerns make good citizens, spend their earnings in the village, and help sustain and fill up our churches and schools.
October 13, 1870
125 YEARS AGO
The “Old Town Pump” was erected over a large and never failing spring of excellent water that was discovered when “Second Street” now Main Street, was opened when the site of the Village of Cooperstown was surveyed and laid out in 1786. For many years it furnished most of the water used in the village for domestic purposes and also was the main reliance for the extinguishment of fires occurring in the business part of the place. All night long, in the conflagration that swept through a large portion of Main and Pioneer Streets in 1862, that pump was kept going without exhausting the supply of water. For more than half a century the store in front of which it stood was known as “The Town Pump Store.” The well was filled up a few years ago when the water pipes were laid through Main Street. Thinking of this early landmark, long regarded as one of the notable features, one of our citizens has caused to be erected over the site a stone two feet square, cut and engraved by E.A. Potter.
October 17, 1895
75 YEARS AGO
Working tensely against time to save a stricken patient’s life, an air transport plane and a State Police auto relay on Tuesday last week delivered serum from New York to the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital to fight an unusual case of meningitis. That afternoon hospital authorities phoned a pharmaceutical house in New York City for the special serum which was placed on an airplane due in Albany at 6.10 p.m. A State Policeman waited at the airport for the transport which was late. The serum was then rushed to Sharon Springs and relayed to another trooper who drove to Cherry Valley where a third car and driver delivered it to Cooperstown by 8:10 p.m. Hospital authorities received the package and raced into the patient’s room.
October 17, 1945
50 YEARS AGO
Archie I. St. John of Cooperstown has retired as of October 1 as Foreman of the Printing Department of The Freeman’s Journal Company where he has been employed for the past 51 years. Mr. St. John came to work for the old Wilcox Publishing Co. in 1919, when the plant was in the Hartson Block on Pioneer Street. The Wilcox Company was later dissolved and its assets obtained by The Freeman’s Journal Co.
October 14, 1970
25 YEARS AGO
The Cooperstown United Methodist Church will host a Homecoming Celebration honoring former pastors, members, friends and the community. The day focuses on the dedication of the recently installed elevator, making the church handicapped accessible at all levels. In addition, other renovations have improved the church building and grounds, including a new furnace, offices, sidewalks and paving.
October 15, 1995
10 YEARS AGO
It was point and counterpoint over the past week on the matter of the 37-turbine Monticello Hills Wind Project.
On October 6, a week ago, North Wind & Power and Ridge-Line Energy hosted 100 people for dinner and discussion at the Tally Ho, with organizer Patrick Doyle expressing satisfaction at the level of positive feedback. On Sunday, October 10, two local brothers, Tex and Russ Seamon, hosted a counter-display at the Richfield Springs Vet’s Club. Speaking of the earlier event, Tex said, “The freebies were the draw.” Doyle emphasized the benefits of wind power while Seamon’s display highlighted mostly negative views. (Ed. Note: The proposed development was later abandoned).
October 14, 2010