Hometown History

October 13, 2022

135 Years Ago
Another of the old landmarks of Oneonta goes with the razing of the old Goodyear saw mill at this village. The mill has become practically useless because of the failure of the water power by reason of the change in the channel of the Susquehanna above the dam. It is understood that the mill yard is to be divided into building lots by Miss Lyman and sold as such.

October 1887

110 Years Ago
Organization of the Indoor Baseball League has been completed, with five teams to compete for honors. The business affairs of the organization will be under the general management of Company G, with an advisory committee of one member from each team. The games will be played on Tuesday and Thursday with umpires chosen from non-competing teams. The 14-inch ball will be used and the standard rules will apply to all games during the series. The price of admission will be 21 cents for reserved seats; 15 cents general admission, and 10 cents for ladies.

October 1912

90 Years Ago
Franklin D. Roosevelt told thousands of Marylanders, amid boos for the Republican administration and cheers for himself, that he was fighting against the four horsemen of the Republican leadership — “destruction, delay, deceit, despair.” In an assault on Republican policies and assertions on the tariff, farm relief, governmental finances, prohibition, economy, and relief, the Democratic presidential candidate brought to Maryland an appeal for the support of that border state in his quest for the key to the White House. Roosevelt’s one mention of the word “beer” set a crowd that police estimated at 25,000 into a one-minute demonstration that set the rafters to ringing. Roosevelt called for modification of the Volstead Act to permit the sale of beer.

October 1932

70 Years Ago
News from the Bresee’s Store (Editor’s note: the first escalators are installed) – Hi everybody! The spooks will soon be spooking and the haunts will be haunting, and with every haunt and spook it brings us that much closer to the escalator promotion that will start on the 17th of November — You are going to be here, aren’t you? — Ceremonies will start at 10 a.m. with Mr. and Mrs. Santa to give this huge present to our very wonderful customers…there will be souvenir gifts and you will want to be on hand to take advantage of all the values and to ride the escalators. The escalators are well on the way and if you have been in the Men’s Shop lately you will notice that the temporary partition is down and they definitely have come out of hiding in that department…you will notice too, that Dick Fowler of the Philadelphia Athletics is back with us again this year and makes a nice addition to the Men’s Shop.

October 1952

50 Years Ago
Two separate fires in dormitories at Hartwick College last night caused a total of $2,300 damage in two rooms. City firemen extinguished a minor fire in a second story room of the three-story Dewar Hall dormitory. Captain Gerald Fisher of the fire department said the fire apparently started when students burned a candle on a dresser. That fire, at 5:15 p.m., caused about $300 worth of damage to the room. Dewar Hall is coed, with women in one room and men in the next. Just two hours later, firemen were again called to extinguish a fire at Saxton Hall where a high intensity lamp was left on causing an estimated $2,000 in damage to a table, lamp, bed, wall-hanging and carpet.

October 1972

40 Years Ago
Approximately 50 SUCO students denied the right to vote in local elections last week have joined a statewide lawsuit challenging the denials. The students tried to register to vote during a voter registration drive in the city on October 16. The registrations were rejected by the Otsego County Board of Elections after the board ruled the students were not eligible to vote locally. “We’re very hopeful that we will win,” said Lea Stein, SUCO’s representative to the Student Association of the State of New York (SASU).

October 1982

20 Years Ago
A year after state legislation banned the use of hand-held phones while driving, local police officials report that very few tickets have been written locally. New York was the first – and is still the only – state to enact a ban on driving while using a hand-held phone. In the first six months of the ban, nearly 3,500 tickets were handed out by the New York State Police. Besides the state police, sheriff’s deputies and other police have issued nearly 40,000 tickets since January according to Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn) who first proposed the ban.

October 2002