Hometown History

December 29, 2022

135 Years Ago
The Local News – The “Happy Coon” minstrels gave an excellent entertainment at the theatre on Saturday evening. Though composed mainly of young men living in Oneonta, the company compares favorably with many of the traveling troupes and indeed has some talent that would be a credit to the best of them.
The new engine and boiler of the Guy table company have been placed in position. It is expected that the factory will be shut down next week and be moved into the commodious new building at the East End. The prospects for a large increase in business are flattering. The corporation will hereafter be known as the “Oneonta Table Co.”
The special revival services conducted by Rev. I.T. Johnson in the M.E. Church have been of great interest. While his method is the old time altar service and has not received the endorsement of all, yet many have presented themselves for prayer, and several have expressed a hope of salvation in Jesus Christ. The evangelist is an earnest preacher, pressing home the truth by frequent reference to his own experience.

December 1887

110 Years Ago
The men’s club at the First Presbyterian Church is proverbial for the quality of its entertainments, but there was never a more pleasant evening than that on Friday when several of the early residents of the city gathered round and talked informally of Oneonta as it used to be. Three men who have spent their entire lives in Oneonta were present – O.C. McCrum, Charles H. Baker and C.W. Peck. All of the business of early Oneonta was conducted in the lower part of the city, at the section now bounded by the corner of River and Main Streets; here was located the grist mill, the saw mill, the tavern, and the first store of the hamlet. The entire section below Main Street was one vast swamp with muskrats swimming about and frogs croaking among the alders. The stores and houses were finally moved up on Main Street to the bluff, as it was then called, to take advantage of the fine springs which were common at that point, and some of which exist to this day in the basements of some of the Main Street stores. Silver Creek, which is now dry at most seasons of the year, formerly ran by the side of the McCrum Block and was well-stocked with trout and other game fish. When the railroad came, Broad Street had its birth. Before this time it was simply swamp, but to gain access to the track, two wide, deep ditches were dug down the hill to get sufficient drainage in that sticky clay that a wagon might traverse it in safety and thus the street was started. Main Street was the old Indian trail and was later laid on as a part of the Catskill Turnpike, extending from Catskill on the Hudson to Ithaca.

December 1912

90 Years Ago
Because of increasing demands for a night’s lodging at the Municipal Building, Oneonta city officials are looking for a place where the transients can be more easily accommodated than in the small quarters now offered them. Until a little more than a year ago a room in the basement of the building, fitted for six, was adequate. Now as many as 40 men have applied for accommodations in one night. More than 6,000 were cared for last year. This has made it necessary for the men to sleep in the boiler room and adjoining hallways.

December 1932

70 Years Ago
Citing a multitude of reasons, Oneonta businessmen yesterday expressed confidence that 1953 would be a good business year. Predictions ranged from conservative to liberal optimism. “Even if the Korean War ends, it won’t stop things,” one executive said, adding that the economy would be buoyed by the “peacetime demand for new goods.” Farmers, politics and the new Enterprise Aluminum Co. figured prominently in several estimates. Automobile dealers are looking for a good year. “They’ve released a lot more steel for new cars and that will of course let the manufacturers build more cars,” a dealer said. “The situation is beginning to parallel the end of WWII,” he added. “Demand is coming up again like it was right after the war. People want to trade their post-war cars in for new ones,” he concluded.

December 1952

50 Years Ago
The patients of A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital and Nursing Home Unit were treated to the sound of Christmas Carols being sung by two Cub Scout Dens from Pack 16, Otego, on Sunday. Under the leadership of Cub Scoutmaster John Hartner, an employee of Fox Hospital, and the directorship of Den Leaders Mrs. Jean Seroka and Mrs. Sally Hartner, nine boys and several mothers sang Christmas Carols to the patients and nurses in both units. The boys were then treated to refreshments donated by the volunteer organization of the hospital. The Cub Scouts participating were: Jeff Seroka, Walter Bettiol, Darrell Tripp, Craig Young, Greg Cox, Craig Van Alstyne, John Hartner, Tom Platt, and Robert Thayer. The mothers were Mrs. Bettiol, Mrs. Tripp, Mrs. Van Alstyne, and Mrs. Thayer.

December 1972

40 Years Ago
Some of the 43 employees recently furloughed from Fox Hospital have found work, and hospital officials are hoping to hire back many more employees in 1983 as attrition takes its toll on the hospital staff. Michael J. McNally, hospital personnel director, said 35 of the 43 employees actually had to leave the staff because of a projected 1983 budget deficit of $1.3 million caused by a change in Medicare reimbursement. Eight of the workers took part-time jobs at the hospital to retain some kind of employment there.

December 1982

30 Years Ago
The Oneonta community has exceeded a goal to raise $100,000 toward restoring its historic Swart-Wilcox House, the oldest surviving structure in the city. Helen Rees, a local educator who has campaigned to save the house on Wilcox Avenue, said the community raised $101,000 after officially starting the fundraiser a year ago. “I had great faith we were going to make it, but I wasn’t quite sure how,” she said.

December 1992